


Reunited

by Mask_Maker_907



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, If you want to avoid it, Noisy Saiyans, Sex scene in chapter 7, Shower Sex, Story is 90 percent fluff, The one percent is smut, aftermath of kidnapping, and about 9 percent plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26312575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mask_Maker_907/pseuds/Mask_Maker_907
Summary: After an intense argument, Chi-Chi vanished. Now around a year later she and Goku are reunited. Now Goku has to deal with suddenly becoming a father, reacquaint himself with his wife and deal with the people who sought to take her away in the first place.
Relationships: Chi-Chi & Son Gohan, Chi-Chi/Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Minor Bulma/Yamcha, Son Gohan & Son Goku
Comments: 26
Kudos: 114





	1. 1: Return

1: Return

The air car creaked and groaned as it flew unevenly over the choppy ocean waves. To the pilot, the water below was little more than an endless void broken up briefly with flashes of light as the water caught the light of the waxing moon. The car shuddered and the driver quickly pulled up to avoid clipping the ocean. She had a feeling that should the flying vehicle touch the water, she wouldn’t be able to get it into the air again.

Something popped and started to whine at the strain of staying airborne. The woman at the wheel gritted her teeth and prayed both that the decrepit old thing would hold together for a little while longer and that the noise wouldn’t wake up her passenger.

She chanced a glance to the seat beside her. A box was held in place with the seatbelts, but not very well. If she strained her ears, she could just barely make out the sound of her son sleeping nested in the cheap cardboard. Her heart broke a little bit at the knowledge that the box was the only thing she could find to hold him. Even filled with the softest blankets and fabrics she managed to scrounge up to pad it, a box was no place for a baby.

A quick look to the rearview mirrors showed no lights following her, though that didn’t mean much, and she returned her attention to coaxing the old craft to going just a little bit farther. She prayed to Kami that the coordinates she had were the right ones. Her son couldn’t afford for her to mess up.

It was only a couple minutes, but if felt like forever before she came upon a small island with a little two story house on it. With some manhandling and more quiet cursing than she would ever admit to doing, the woman managed to land the car as far away from the house as possible while still staying clear of the water. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to wake the old man living there quite yet. While she did want him to get up and answer the door promptly, meeting with her and talking would take far too long. She could not afford for it to take that long.

As quickly as possible the young mother unbuckled the box and grabbed a ratty bag from the foot well. After a brief moment of struggle, she removed a slightly crumpled letter from the bag that she tucked in with her son. Then she left the car, carefully carrying the box with her son in it as she stumbled up to the door. Her legs were unsteady on the sand, much to her frustration, though she should be used to it by now; the lack of food had made her feel weak and unsteady for a while. All she had to do now was knock on the door, as loudly as she could, and leave as fast as possible. She’d done it before, earlier that night she’d done it nearly half a dozen times. This time would be different though. This time she’d be leaving her child behind.

This time she lingered just a bit, staring at her son one last time. She didn’t have time to do this, not if she wanted him to be safe and loved. With a stifled sob she turned away from his sleeping form and went to knock.

The door flew open before she could so much as touch it. Standing in the opening was someone she’d never thought she’d see again.

“Chi-Chi?!” It’d been about a year since she’d heard her husband’s voice, but there was no mistaking it, or his silhouette. The lights were off inside, but she could make out enough of his form from what little moonlight was there.

She wanted to smile at him, to fling herself into his arms and never leave. Instead she ignored the questions and concern in his voice and hiccupped out, “I-help. I’m-I’m being followed.”

His gaze immediately sharpened and he looked passed her shoulder, she turned to look as well, but like before she couldn’t see anything. However, that didn’t mean there was nothing there.

Chi-Chi had only looked away for a second, but by the time she looked back Goku had lost that hard look and was now gazing at her with worry and confusion.

“Let’s go inside.” He glanced at the box, but he didn’t ask about it, or the baby in it; instead he moved aside to allow her to enter.

Despite herself, Chi-Chi hesitated. A part of her was still convinced that her original plan, the one she’d been committed to, was the only one that would work for sure to keep her child safe. But her husband was here. Goku, who was the strongest man in the world, who’d went against the odds and defeated the Demon King Piccolo and then Piccolo Jr. Who was surely more than strong enough to defeat the people she couldn’t overcome herself. Though their time spent together was much less than the time they’d been apart since their marriage, Chi-Chi couldn’t help but put her faith in his strength.

With another shuddering breath, she entered the dark house.

As soon as she heard the door click shut relief washed over her. There was no more need to run, she was safe now. Though it’d been so long since she’d last felt safe that the feeling was almost disconcerting.

Light abruptly illuminated the room, Chi-Chi couldn’t hold back her flinch at the sudden blinding brightness. She wasn’t the only one, a groan from the other side of the couch almost distracted her from the low growl her husband let out as he got a good look at her. The young woman had to suppress another flinch; she knew she wasn’t in the best of conditions physically but she hadn’t really had time to worry about it before. It seemed like a silly thing to be concerned about even now, but Chi-Chi was acutely aware that her hair was a matted tangled mess, her clothes were little more than dirty rags and she hadn’t been able to wash herself in days. If it had been anyone else looking at her she likely wouldn’t have cared, but it was Goku and she couldn’t help but worry about what he’d think of her in this state.

Luckily the person from earlier spoke up before she could keep thinking along that line. “Goku, what the heck? It’s too early for training.” Upon hearing the youthful voice, Chi-Chi couldn’t help but relax a little more; two capable fighters on her side were much better odds than what she’d had for the past year. At least, she hoped the second person was a capable fighter. She didn’t know his friends enough to recognize them by voice alone.

Goku didn’t answer his friend though, instead he moved to Chi-Chi, gently nudging her to the couch. The warmth from his body made her realize how cold she’d been. She shivered and unconsciously leaned towards him to warm up more and she was rewarded by a small, happy, almost purr like sound Goku made. She always loved the small noises he’d make, and he’d do them quite often. It was a small thing, but it was one of those things she’d missed the most about him.

By the time he’d guided her around the couch to the side of the sofa-bed he and his friend must have been sleeping on, his friend had woken up enough to take in the extra people in the house.

“Goku, who…wait, is that Chi-Chi?!” She gave a small shy smile in response while Goku enthusiastically nodded. His friend was the bald one with the incense burns on his forehead. She couldn’t for the life of her remember his name though. He was eyeing her suspiciously, which she thought was kind of strange. “What’s with that box-Holy shit is that a baby?!” Chi-Chi winced as the last question was shouted. Goku’s friend hadn’t even tried to move away from where he was looking into her son’s temporary carrier before his exclamation. 

That noise was way too much for her son to sleep through and he wasted no time at all in making himself heard. They all winced at the volume of his cries with Goku covering his more sensitive ears. Chi-Chi quickly scooped her son up to sooth him while discreetly stuffing the letter a little further down into his nest of blankets.

“Krillin!”

“Sorry! I was just shocked!”

It was around this point that master Roshi finally made himself known, ambling down the stairs in his night clothes. “What’s going on down here, and who left that air car running outside?” It was then that he noticed Chi-Chi and the wailing infant. “Ohho, what’s this?”

“Chi-Chi’s back!” Goku chirped, taking his hands away from his ears, “and she has a baby.”

“I noticed.” She was fairly sure he was eyeing her, though it was difficult to tell with his ever present sunglasses and she was, in all honesty, much more focused on soothing her child.

He was usually fairly easy to calm down, but usually she was avoiding people, so the other people in the room were making him agitated. Normally she’d duck out of the room, hide somewhere that wouldn’t attract much attention. However Goku was here, right by her side. There was no danger here. She and her son were safe. Even with her husband’s warmth at her shoulder it was surprisingly hard to remember that. Despite that it didn’t take all that long for her child to calm down.

She was so focused on her baby and ignoring that there were others in the room, watching her, that she missed the fact that they were talking. At least, until Goku nudged her shoulder, that is. She couldn’t help but jump at the contact, causing her child to whimper, but thankfully not break out crying again.

Focusing back on the rest of the room, she noticed both Master Roshi and Krillin weren’t there. Goku was giving her a soft smile, though he kept glancing to the baby in her arms.

“Krillin went to take care of the car and master Roshi’s fixing up the upstairs for u- for you.” His smile turned sheepish. “The bathroom’s over there,” he pointed, “if you want to use it.”

Her lips twitched up a little. “I smell awful, don’t I?”

“Nah, not that bad, kind of like milk for some reason though,” Goku took a more obvious sniff, “they’re starting to smell a little bit.” He gestured slightly to her son, though he still didn’t ask. She honestly wished he would; Chi-Chi wasn’t sure how else to bring it up. Though they’d only had a short time to get to know each other, she’d quickly found that he greatly disliked sudden and drastic changes. And to him this was a very sudden change indeed.

She should just outright tell him that her son was his too. Instead she simply said, “I guess that’s my cue to go change him.” Before digging into the nearly forgotten bag for a diaper, though there wasn’t many of those left in it. Clutching it in the hand that wasn’t supporting her son, she stood slowly and carefully. Chi-Chi had long since learned that standing and moving too fast made her dizzy and too likely to drop her child. It hadn’t happened yet, thankfully, but it was not something she’d ever want to risk if she could help it.

Sometimes she hadn’t been able to help it.

She hesitated before leaving Goku’s side though. He’d seemed happy enough to see her again, even when she hadn’t said much of anything about what’d happened. However, just because he’d seemed happy, it didn’t mean he was. More than that, they’d only gotten to know each other for a couple months before they’d been separated. She didn’t know if their boundaries had changed since then. She didn’t even know if _hers_ had changed since then.

Still, she mustered up the courage and turned to his still sitting form. “Goku?”

“Hm?”

She couldn’t help but bite her lip, but she’d come this far. “Can you stay with me? Tonight?” He seemed surprised she’d asked that but nodded anyway, and Chi-Chi wondered if he thought it was a given that they’d stay together. Regardless a genuine smile stretched across her face and without much thought she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “I missed you,” she murmured before retreating red faced to the bathroom.

She left too quickly to hear his equally quiet response.


	2. 2: Reveal

2: Reveal

“I’ve missed you too.”

The bathroom door clicked shut and Goku wasn’t sure what to think, though he was relieved to see that Chi-Chi was still willing to kiss him, and that she wanted to stay near him. Though that relief was short lived.

Chi-Chi was so _thin_ now. Not that she’d been particularly plump before, but she’d always had a healthy layer of fat softening her form. That was gone now, along with what looked like a great deal of muscle, leaving her too thin and terrifyingly frail looking.

Then there was the fear. The first night they’d been intimate she’d been scared too, but it was a nervous fear, self-conscious and full of excitement. He’d found it cute.

This was nowhere close to cute. The way she shrunk in on herself whenever their attention went to her, how she’d jumped whenever he’d touched her, that she felt the need to curl up around the baby to protect them seemed to set off every instinct Goku had to find and completely destroy whatever- whoever- caused her to act this way. Chi-Chi was strong and fierce, she shouldn’t ever be so scared.

The sound of the door shutting brought Goku’s focus back to the present. Krillin had finished dealing with the car, apparently. His face was a mix of confused and concerned. Goku wondered if he’d sensed the ki of whoever was following his wife. Though they had moved further away for now.

“What’s wrong?” He kind of figured his friend would have mixed feelings about Chi-Chi’s return as well. A couple months ago Krillin had joined Bulma and Oolong in musing that Chi-Chi’s disappearance was deliberate on her part. By now only Goku himself and Chi-Chi’s dad were certain she hadn’t wanted to disappear like that.

Somehow he couldn’t find it to be happy that he was correct.

“It’s just kind of strange that she left the car running,” he muttered, looking around the room.

“Chi-Chi’s in the bathroom getting cleaned up.”

“Ah… Hey, so, what’s with the baby?”

Goku could only shrug. In all honestly, he’d been trying not to think about it. Him. Her son- and it would _have_ to be her son, there’s no reason why she’d have him otherwise- looked so small, maybe as big as Puar. How old was he? Goku knew it took some time for a baby to be born, and that she was gone long enough for her to have his son. However, she was also gone long enough for him to not be Goku’s. Goku stopped that train of thought right there, he couldn’t think about something like that, not now and maybe not ever.

Regardless, he was a father now and Goku wasn’t sure how to deal with that.

By now their old master had returned from upstairs. He brought with him a thin lacy pink piece of clothing. “Here, looked like that girl didn’t have anything clean to change into. This should fit her.”

Krillin choked. “I don’t- now’s not the- _master_!”

Goku found himself frowning at the sheer garment. Chi-Chi had worn things like that before, but it was never the sort of thing she’d slept in. “I don’t know, that doesn’t look comfortable to sleep in. Or warm.” Though the night was mild, she’d been shivering pretty badly. He didn’t think anything of Krillin’s or master Roshi’s would fit her, and the things Launch left were all along the same lines of what master Roshi was holding up.

Goku himself didn’t have very many clothes here, having only been intending to stay for a couple days out of boredom and loneliness. He had an extra pair of boxers that should work, though the only clean shirt he had that wasn’t weighted was the sleep shirt he was wearing. Well, he could stand sleeping shirtless for a little bit. Besides, the thought of Chi-Chi wearing his clothes was highly appealing.

There was something a little more pressing on his mind though. “Do we still have some senzu beans left?”

Master Roshi glanced at him. “So you noticed,” Krilin’s wince meant that he’d seen it too. Whenever Chi-Chi hadn’t been holding her son, her left arm had gone to guard her ribs on that side. She hadn’t made a big deal out of it, but clearly she’d been hurt there badly enough for that spot to be more vulnerable than anywhere else. “No, I don’t think we do.”

Goku grimaced at that. However, there wasn’t much they could do about it right now. Well, being the only one able to ride the Nimbus meant he could take it to Korin’s tower, but the thought of leaving Chi-Chi, even for the couple hours it’d take to go there and back, just felt wrong to him. Especially since they’d just been reunited. Instead he went to where he’d stored his bag and dug through it for something for Chi-Chi to wear.

It didn’t take very long before he was standing in front of the bathroom door. He could hear the faint murmurs of his wife and the small light giggles coming from her baby. Those sounds cut off when he knocked on the bathroom door. “Chi-Chi? Can I come in?”

“Y-yeah, the door’s unlocked.” He made a mental note, as he entered, to tell her to lock it next time; master Roshi tended to barge in whether people were using it or not. Mostly with Launch and Bulma whenever they visited.

His wife was still fully clothed and kneeling by the tub, from the sounds of water splashing about, her son – their son, he supposed- was getting a bath. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the sight of his wife. Despite how worryingly thin and ruffed up she was, Chi-Chi was still so pretty.

He held up the extra clothes when she glanced back to him. “Kind of figured you’d want cleaner clothes.” On his way to the bathroom, master Roshi had been very insistent on letting Chi-Chi wear the lacy shirt, so he had that too, despite knowing Chi-Chi wouldn’t wear it. Her thankful smile made his heart flutter and a purr lodge itself in his throat.

Her smile turned shy as she half turned back to the tub. “Could you come closer? There’s- there’s someone I want you to meet.”

Goku had stayed by the door, not that he hadn’t wanted to be as close as possible to his wife right now, he just didn’t want her to feel trapped. “Do you want me to lock the door? Master Roshi has a habit of entering without knocking.”

She hesitated briefly before nodding, her eyes flickered to the room’s window. Was she making sure no one would come in that way? Maybe he should teach her how to sense ki. It’d probably make her feel better to know there wasn’t anyone outside the house.

Well, not immediately outside the house. The several ki signatures he’d sensed from earlier were still hovering around, just inside his sensing range. A part of him wanted to go out now and take care of them, these people who’d chased his wife, who made her scared. He wanted them gone right now. The rest of him was just terrified that if he got too far away Chi-Chi would vanish once more and he’d never see her again.

He could hunt whoever they were down later, but Goku wasn’t about to risk losing Chi-Chi again.

She began talking again as he approached, her voice was thick with nervousness. “This really should have been the first thing I talked to you about, but it didn’t seem like the right time and I wasn’t sure what to say, it’s kind of a shock and well…” She suddenly picked up her baby and held him up to Goku. “This is Gohan, he’s your son.”

His mind jerked to a halt. He had known that the child, no matter how they’d come into being, was his. But seeing the baby fully held before him, seeing the familiar way his face looked, how he had Goku’s ears and Chi-Chi’s eyes and hearing her say that, was all completely different to just thinking about it.

What’s more was his name. “You- you named him Gohan?”

His wonderful wife bit her lip again and nodded. “I-I was missing you, and you weren’t there. It wasn’t your fault but I still wanted you to be there, and- and you were always talking about your Grandpa and how much he meant to you and I thought that…that it’d be a little something more of you and whenever I called him that he’d smile so much…and…” Goku really couldn’t tell why she was so nervous but it looked like she was about to cry. “Is it okay? The name I mean?”

“It’s perfect.” He smiled broadly at her before turning back to look at his son- _his_ son!- and just take him in.

“Did you want to hold him?”

“Can I?”

She smiled and nodded though Gohan himself didn’t look too impressed with the idea. Gohan was so small! Goku had noticed before but it was different now that he was holding his son in his arms. A damp fuzzy brown tail wrapped around Chi-Chi’s wrist as she handed him over. His son had his tail; this was the best day ever! And the sun hadn’t even risen yet.

Gohan didn’t really like being away from Chi-Chi though. Goku could sympathize, he didn’t like being away from Chi-Chi either. As soon as he left her hands, Gohan was whining and reaching back for his mom. It hurt a little, but he _was_ a stranger and Goku doubted Gohan had ever really been away from Chi-Chi since he was born. Still, he didn’t want his son to be scared of him.

Gohan abruptly turned to face him with a strange look on his face and a curious sound coming from the back of his throat. Goku glanced at his wife for the sudden change, she smiled at him.

“You chirped,” her face grew red. “I didn’t know when you’d get to meet him, but I wanted Gohan to get to know you before then, so I would, uh.” She refocused on Gohan before she made a small chirping noise that sounded slightly off, but it made Goku’s own face turn scarlet and his insides feel like goo. In a good way.

While Chi-Chi had never seemed to mind the small noises he’d make, nearly everyone else thought it was weird whenever he’d do that. Even his Grandpa had tried to get him to stop. Granted Grandpa had told him it was baby talk and that he’d been too old to keep doing it, rather than it just being strange. It felt wrong not to make sounds like that though, like he was only saying half of what he meant to say even though he knew for a fact that the noises didn’t have specific meanings to them. It was kind of hard to explain, and the rest of his friends never seemed to understand him when he tried, but Chi-Chi just shrugged and told him she didn’t mind.

Hearing her mimic those sounds, teaching them to his son as a way to recognize family, it only made him love her even more.

Then Gohan chirped back. It was so cute Goku felt like he was going to die. Instead he cooed and brought his son up to nuzzle the crook of his neck. He used the opportunity to take in his son’s scent and memorize it. He could feel Gohan taking in his own too. It was perfect, they were both perfect.

Too soon though, Gohan wanted to go back to his mom and started reaching for her again. Though this time he was making more chirps and whines than before.

“He likes you,” her voice was soft as she took back the squirming damp baby. “I knew he would.” She smiled up at him. “You’re very likeable.”

“Just likeable?”

She giggled and leaned against him as they lapsed into a comfortable silence. Well, semi silence. Gohan would make noises and Goku would respond in kind. Goku could sort of see why his Grandpa had thought that the noises were baby talk, but then Gohan would babble something that _was_ genuinely baby talk and the similarity, to Goku’s mind at least, would be gone. There was just something more to the chirps and coos that wasn’t there in the babbling. Chi-Chi would on occasion join in, but Goku could tell it wasn’t quite as natural for her as it was for him and Gohan.

It didn’t take long for Chi-Chi to finish giving their child a bath and by the end even Goku, with his limited experiences with babies, could tell that Gohan wouldn’t be awake for much longer.

He waited until she’d taken him out, dried him and then wrapped their son up like an eggroll before speaking again. Broaching a topic that had be niggling at the back of his mind though one he really hadn’t wanted to think about.

“You weren’t going to stay, were you.” Between her leaving the air car running and the way she’d looked ready to bolt when he’d opened the door, there wasn’t really much of a question in his mind.

She froze briefly before seeming to sag. “I didn’t know you’d be here.” Her voice was quiet and filled with guilt and sadness as she rocked Gohan gently. “I-I thought it’d just be master Roshi all alone here. And- and they were too many of them. They were too smart to just attack one at a time and…and protecting someone is _hard_. Harder than just defending yourself. And I couldn’t risk Gohan getting hurt.” Her breath hitched and she looked like she was going to start crying.

Goku pulled her close and let her burry her face in his shoulder. “I was going to lead them away. To give Roshi time and space to get Gohan to you. Even if I-” She cut herself off and had to take several breaths before starting again. “Gohan would have been _safe_ , I knew he’d be safe. As long as he could get to _you_.”

“I’m glad you stayed.” Her nod of agreement felt like a balm to the idea that she had been thinking of leaving Gohan behind. Even if she did have a good reason, and even if she was going to leave him with someone they knew, the thought of Chi-Chi abandoning her child like he’d been abandoned hurt. While Goku would never complain about being raised by his Grandpa, there were times when he’d wonder about his parents and why he was alone when he’d been found.

He waited until her breathing evened out a bit more before pulling away and smiling at her. “It’s not just master Roshi here. We’ll protect you and Gohan no matter what, okay?”

She nodded, wiping some stray tears from her eyes. “I know.”

Her eyes were filled with trust and faith in him, the sight made him feel so giddy inside he couldn’t help but kiss her on the lips. She pulled away quickly though, muttering shyly about bad breath and toothbrushes and covering her mouth in embarrassment. True it tasted a little off, he didn’t care though. It’d been far too long since they’ve last kissed. Still, if she didn’t want to kiss anymore right now, that was fine.

He leaned back to give her some space to compose herself and his hand touched fabric. That’s right, he’d brought clothes for her. She’d refocused her attention on getting Gohan to sleep so he quickly took his shirt off to add to the small pile.

When their son- and he didn’t think that thought would ever stop thrilling him- was asleep she turned her attention back to him, eyebrow raised silently in question of his now shirtless state. He smiled sheepishly, “I didn’t think you’d like master Roshi’s offering, so…” He held up the two tops. In the back of his mind he was confused as to why his master gave her a top but no bottom; the lacy garment wasn’t as long as his shirt was and he knew Chi-Chi would need to wear something under his shirt for her to feel comfortable.

She grimaced at the pink lacy fabric and gave him a small thankful smile. “You’re right about that. If you don’t mind being without a shirt at least.”

“Nah it’s fine.” Tonight was a night he didn’t mind being shirtless. Even if it was colder, if it meant Chi-Chi wearing his shirt, he wouldn’t mind sleeping without it. The sleepshirt itself was actually something Chi-Chi had bought him. When they first started living together she freaked out once when she’d caught him sleeping with his weighted shirt on, as he hadn’t wanted to sleep shirtless or in his gi, and treated him to a blistering lecture about compressed lungs and suffocation. Then she dragged him to a store and told him to pick out something he’d like to sleep in. It’d been kind of overwhelming but it’d also warmed him up inside to know how much she’d cared about him. Since she was the reason he had the shirt in the first place, in a way, it seemed kind of fitting that he’d let her wear it for tonight.

Another thought occurred to him, and he could feel his lips twitch upward in humor. “Chi-Chi, I was wondering…”

“Hm?”

“How do you think they’ll react if I leave the bathroom wearing this?” He held up the rejected top over his chest, smiling widely. People had weird ideas about clothes and Goku had learned that it made them react in funny ways whenever he wore something he ‘wasn’t supposed to.’ Granted he didn’t normally want to wear something like this; the kind of lace that was on it was itchy.

She giggled in response, settling Gohan on her lap so he wouldn’t be jostled.

“Don’t laugh, I bet I’d look really good in it. It’s my color and everything.” He didn’t know what that phrase meant exactly, but he’d heard it said often when women were talking about clothes on the TV.

“I don’t think you’d fit in it.”

He shrugged, “well I can try.” Just to prove it he went to put it on, only to get stuck as his shoulders were far too broad to even fit through the bottom. After a few more moments of struggling he gave up. “Chi-Chi, help?”

She hid her laughter behind her hand. “Strongest man in the world, defeated by a nightie.”

“It’s a tricky opponent!” He whined, quietly though. He hadn’t forgotten that Gohan was there and as much as he wanted to make his wife laugh, he didn’t want to wake up his son. Not with Chi-Chi looking more and more tired as the time passed.

“Here, come closer.” He could have gotten out of it easily enough, without even ripping the fabric as well, but he was _not_ about to pass up a chance to be close to Chi-Chi. On her suggestion he crossed his legs and without another word she gently placed their son into the natural cradle his legs and lap had formed. Gohan snuggled into his thigh, he wanted to squeal it was so cute.

Standing she moved behind him and gently tugged the garment off. “Maybe later we could find one in your size.”

He’d only been joking and he was pretty sure she was too, but the thought of doing something like shopping with her made his heart pound. It’d been so long since they’d last gone out together, after all. As soon as his arm was free he couldn’t help but reach around and hug her, nuzzling his face into her leg. “Promise? Maybe not this kind of shirt but…shopping together? Promise?”

She ran her fingers through his hair. He just about melted right then and there. How could he have forgotten just how _good_ it felt to have her play with his hair? If there was anything that made him purr quicker than Chi-Chi touching his hair, he couldn’t think of it. “Anything, as long as you’re with me.” He had the feeling he was the one who should be promising her anything, but in this case it felt like it’d be the same either way. He would do _anything_ she wanted so long as they were together.

They stayed like that for a while before Chi-Chi pulled away. His whine was much more genuine and pitiful sounding this time, though he had to cut himself off as Gohan had started to stir at the sound.

“I need to get cleaned up,” she mumbled, “before I fall asleep standing. Could you… Could you take Gohan and wait outside?”

“But I want to stay with you.”

“I know, and I do too, but this…It’s stupid but please? For right now? I can’t…”

He smoothly stood up, easily transferring Gohan to a hold much like he’d seen her hold the baby before, and kissed her cheek. “It’s okay. We’ll be waiting outside, okay?”

She kissed him back, “thank you.”

His smile fell when he was on the other side of the door. He wanted to still be in the same room as her, darn it! Even if it did mean he could hold his son for longer. He could hear Krillin and master Roshi talking quietly in the living room, but he didn’t feel like joining them at the moment. All he could do was stand and wait until Chi-Chi was done so he could be near her again.


	3. 3: Recollection

3: Recollection

Goku didn’t sleep that night. Not that he was uncomfortable, far from it. He was the most comfortable he’d been in months, how could he not be? His wife was there, lying next to him in his clothes. He had been right before, he did greatly enjoy seeing her in his clothes and how they were too big on her and how much it made her smell like him. Granted she also smelled annoyingly like Krillin, because she’d used his soap, but Goku was determined to ignore that. His son was there as well, curled up and snuggling against Chi-Chi as best he could and dead to the world.

Chi-Chi wasn’t quite as sound asleep; she would often times wake up a bit to make sure Gohan was there and okay before drifting back off. It hurt a little to see that. That she’d gone through things that were bad enough to the point where she’d developed a habit of staying vigilant even when asleep. He wished he’d been there for her during that.

He was helping now though, at least it felt like he was. Whenever she’d force herself to wake up, he’d rub her back and whisper reminders that she was with him, that she was safe, that Gohan was safe. It didn’t take her long to go back to sleep then.

The idea of sleeping himself though was too scary at the moment. It felt like the second he closed his eyes to sleep, she and Gohan would vanish. He’d wake up downstairs next to Krillin and start another day full of training or looking for her. Or arguing with Bulma about using the Dragon Balls to find her.

Eyeing her too thin form and how, even in her sleep, Chi-Chi guarded her left side Goku regretted not pushing Bulma harder on giving him the radar. Though sometimes he doubted anything short of stealing it would have gotten his old friend to give it up.

Thinking about it left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. Especially the events that happened a month ago even if he didn’t think it’d really been Bulma’s fault that time.

Goku knew he was attractive, Chi-Chi had told him he was so many times. Also, even if she hadn’t meant to, thanks to Chi-Chi he knew what arousal smelt like and what it meant. So even if he hadn’t actually wanted to know, he could tell when Bulma was aroused around him. At first he thought it’d been Yamcha, or that she was thinking about her boyfriend, but no. Many times it was for _him_ and not Yamcha. Goku didn’t know what to do with that unwanted knowledge, but figured ignoring it would be for the best; after all even if Chi-Chi was missing he was still her husband and Bulma was more often than not dating the former desert bandit.

Then about a month ago his friends were ‘in a rough patch,’ as they put it, and Bulma was drunk. He’d stopped by to ask for the dragon radar again and Bulma started talking about how Chi-Chi had likely regretted marrying him. How she’d gotten what she’d wanted and left, how she was probably living it up with some other guy somewhere else and didn’t want to tell her dad. Then Bulma kissed him, hard.

It’d taken more self-control than he’d thought he had to gently push her away and leave the lab.

The moment she’d started talking about Chi-Chi like that: approaching him and smelling aroused by him, he’d frozen and had to clamp down on the urge to slam her into the wall and rip her throat out. Every instinct he had screamed that she was a threat to his Chi-Chi, that she needed to be gotten rid of before she made sure he’d never find his wife again.

Afterwards he’d had to let off some steam to keep from returning and doing what he hadn’t done. There was now a field where there was once a mountain. He hadn’t even used very much ki at the time, being too worked up to think of using it. It was honestly terrifying and it made him think back to when he, in a fit of adrenaline, told the Demon King Piccolo that he might not be human. He’d been talking about having a tail at the time, but maybe there was more to that than he’d first thought.

He’d met with Bulma twice since then, both times he had to seriously fight the urge to growl and snarl at her. The first time they’d met after, it was clear to him that his oldest friend remembered. Bulma had tried to, nervously, bring it up but Goku had acted confused and ignorant enough that she dropped it. He didn’t know if she’d wanted to apologize for talking like that and kissing him or if she’d wanted to continue that talk sober. In truth, he just wanted her to stop talking about it. It was way easier to ignore the urge to eliminate her as a threat to Chi-Chi if what happened was never mentioned again.

That said, both times their argument about using the Dragon Balls to find Chi-Chi got far more heated and intense than they had been before. Goku would often have to leave shortly after they started before he lost control of his temper and did something regrettable.

Goku shook his head of those memories and thoughts, burying his face in his – alive and present- wife’s hair. He didn’t want to think about it anymore now. Bulma was probably going to come over when it wasn’t dark out and either master Roshi or Krillin called her and Yamcha about it. He wouldn’t want to think about it then either, though he probably would.

For now though he was content to cuddle his wife, gaze at his son and make sure to pay attention to any foreign ki signatures that got within his sensing range.

It didn’t feel like very long before the room began to lighten as dawn approached. Then again, Chi-Chi had arrived late at night. Goku had honestly thought he was dreaming when he sensed her ki so close to him, it was a bit of a shock when he realized he was awake. He was glad he’d gotten up to check though. It scared him to know that he might have missed her, that he would have had to take care of Gohan by himself. He didn’t really know much of anything about babies.

He didn’t think he could have managed it.

As if hearing his thoughts, his small son began to stir. He propped himself up so he could look at Gohan over Chi-Chi’s still sleeping form. He gave his child a small smile, “morning Gohan, you’re up early.”

Gohan whined in response to his soft voice and tried to move closer to Chi-Chi, but he was swaddled too tightly to do much. Goku chuckled and decided to help him out. He didn’t look too comfortable wrapped up in that blanket anyway. He’d had to move to Chi-Chi’s other side to do that though. Goku honestly didn’t like that Gohan still regarded him with some suspicion; as soon as he could he curled up against his mom and wrapped his tail firmly around her closest hand. But that was fine, they’d only met a couple hours ago, after all.

So Goku didn’t try to approach any closer than he was. Instead he cooed, chirped and trilled at his son putting all the affection and love he could into the sounds until, to his surprise and delight the baby responded in kind.

At least at first. It wasn’t long after the sun started to rise that Gohan began to whimper and whine. He didn’t smell like he did last night when Chi-Chi needed to change him, so Goku wasn’t quite sure what was wrong. He didn’t want to wake Chi-Chi up though, considering how tired she was when they went to bed and how poorly she’d slept.

He’d have to though as Gohan’s whines evolved into soft crying that honestly hurt his heart to listen to. Without thinking he reached over to shake Chi-Chi awake but that action caused Gohan to cry much louder and more earnestly, waking her up before Goku could so much as touch her.

She blinked blearily at the two of them for a couple seconds before yawning and sitting up. “Wha? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know! He just started crying! What do I do?”

She pulled their child into her lap and he calmed down a lot. “He’s probably just hungry, I’ve been getting up a lot earlier than this to feed him.” Then she pulled the collar of the shirt down and guided their son to her breast. His shirt was large enough and the neck hole was wide enough that she managed this easily.

“Chi-Chi, what?” Goku was very confused because before she’d told him that, as her husband, he was the only one allowed to put his mouth on her nipples. Then Gohan started suckling and suddenly Goku was much less confused. It also explained why she’d been smelling like milk. “Oh, that’s what those are for. I was wondering why only girls had boobs. So it’s kind of similar to cows and their utters, right?”

Chi-Chi winced as their son fed, but rolled her eyes at Goku’s statement. “It’s exactly like cows Goku, the placement is just a little different for them.”

“Wait, does that mean the milk from cows is for baby cows?”

“If you keep milking cows then they’ll keep making milk, beyond when the calf needs it. Drinking milk doesn’t steal food from baby cows.” She answered absentmindedly as she looked around for something. “The bag I had is downstairs, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“There’s a tin of baby formula in there and some bottles, could you mix up two bottles and bring them and the bag up here?”

“Baby formula?”

“It’s extra milk,” she looked down at Gohan with a guilty expression on her face. “I can’t make enough to feed him on my own.” Her voice was quiet and she was acting like it was a personal failure that she couldn’t give him enough.

“Guess he has my appetite then.”

His attempt at humor fell horribly flat, though she did smile. It was too strained, too guilty and too bitter to count as a success though. “Seems like it, when I was pregnant it felt like I could never get enough to eat.”

His own small smile fell as he took in her too thin frame. She didn’t look to be in much better condition now than she had last night, for all her body was cleaner. There wasn’t anything either of them could do to change what she went through before, but he could certainly make sure neither she nor Gohan would go hungry again.

Bending forward he gave her a quick peck on the forehead. “I’ll be back soon.” Her smile was much happier this time as he quickly and quietly made his way down the stairs.

The main floor was still dark, which didn’t surprise him. Of the three of them, Goku was the one who’d always wake up first. This meant he usually was the one who’d have to catch breakfast, but he was pretty sure they had enough for him to skip doing that today. Unless Chi-Chi wanted fish, though even then he’d probably have to ask Krillin to get it for him. Even being just down the stairs felt like he was too far away from her.

It was easy enough to silently go to the bag Chi-Chi had left behind. It and the box she’d been carrying Gohan in had been placed near the sofa-bed. He’d noticed a crumpled and creased piece of paper in the box but he figured it wasn’t that important, or at least not as important as making sure Gohan was full.

To keep from waking his friend and his teacher up he moved the bag to the kitchen before digging through it for the formula can. It was easy enough to find, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of the instructions. He stood there trying to figure it out before giving up and going back upstairs, feeling defeated.

During the time he’d been gone, Gohan had switched breasts, Goku couldn’t help but wince at the sight of the first nipple though. It was bruised and looked chapped. That was a sensitive part of Chi-Chi’s body and he had to wonder how much it hurt her to feed their child. It made him feel just that much guiltier that he hadn’t been able to figure out how to make the powdered formula into something Gohan could drink.

Luckily she didn’t seem too upset by his failure though. Then again, she knew he had some difficulty following written directions like recipes. If he was verbally instructed to do things, it’d be fine but reading them just made him feel lost and confused.

She just smiled at him. “It can be kind of confusing to make it the first few times.”

“You say that every time I try to cook something specific.” He huffed.

“Cooking is a skill you need to build up, like a more advanced kata.”

A broad smile began to creep over his face as he settled down next to her, this was a conversation they’d had many times before; one they always had whenever he tried to cook regardless of how well it turned out. “I cook just fine over a fire.”

“Partially cooked and charred meat isn’t a good demonstration of skill.”

“It’s worked for me well enough.”

“Given a choice between your ‘cooking’ and mine, which would you rather eat?”

“That’s not fair,” he whined, “you always cook more things than meat.”

She stuck out her tongue and they both broke down giggling. For a brief and wonderful moment it was like she’d never disappeared. As their laughter died down he leaned against her, on the side opposite their son, and took in her scent once again. Because she _had_ disappeared and it’d been horrible.

“It’s scary,” he muttered quietly, “how much you mean to me.” It was scary how he hadn’t even wanted to enter their house knowing she wouldn’t be there. It was scary how little he wanted train or eat when she wasn’t there. It was scary how willing he’d been to hurt Bulma if it meant Chi-Chi would be safe. It was scary how the thought of losing her forever made him want to break everything and keep breaking it till there was nothing left. It was scary how wholly and deeply she’d affected him when they’d only known each other for such a little amount of time.

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel like we’ve only lived together for a couple months.”

“Mm.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Mn?”

“For before- before all this happened. It was your choice and I had no right to try and take that from you.”

That’s right, before she’d disappeared they’d had a pretty big fight. Chi-Chi had wanted him to get a job. He hadn’t wanted to do that; it’d take too much time away from training and most of what he’d heard about jobs made them sound completely boring. It’d gotten extremely heated and not in a good way. He’d left to train and to give time for both of them to calm down, and when he returned Chi-Chi was gone. He hadn’t forgotten about that fight, just with her gone and now that she was back it didn’t seem like it mattered that much.

“You weren’t wrong either. I talked to your dad and master Roshi after and…” He removed his head from her shoulder to better see her face. “Before I met Bulma or anyone else, I lived off the land. Grandpa and I, we didn’t have any need for money. We could get anything by going out and putting a little effort into it. Even after that, anything I needed I could either find myself or it was given to me. And I didn’t understand why I - why _we_ \- couldn’t go on living like that.”

“We probably could have for a little while but…”

“Yeah, they explained a few things to me.” He hesitated, “I know I’ll need to get one soon, but…I don’t want to leave your side. Not right now. Maybe not for a while…”

“I know what you mean. The thought of being away from you scares me right now.” He let out a surprised purr at that. Just the knowledge that he made her feel safe made his heart flutter. “But we’ll think of something. Who knows, maybe we’ll find a job that lets you train while doing it.”

“I could do that?”

“If we find the right one, then probably.”

He kissed her. “I’d like that,” then he kissed her again, deeper than before. Ever since their first few intimate times together the heat of arousal had always been easy to draw to the surface whenever he was near her. But now, after so long without her and with her wearing his clothes, it felt like he was on fire with need. Even the fact that she smelt faintly like Krillin just made him want to touch her more, if only to erase the scent of another male on her.

He wasn’t quite desperate enough to try having sex with her while their son was still in the room with them though. Or at least not while he was awake. So Goku reluctantly pulled away first and had to smirk at her flushed face and the way her eyes were glassy with want. Seeing her like this, because of him, after so long without her had him moving in for more without meaning to.

Then Gohan burped and whined for more food. That small moment of intimacy was ruined but Goku honestly didn’t mind too much. Especially when he saw how red his wife’s face got.

“Le-let’s go and get you more food, huh Gohan?” Chi-Chi hastily adjusted her shirt to cover her chest now that Gohan was clearly done feeding from her.

Still feeling giddy and hot from those kisses and wanting to stay close to her, Goku simply picked her up and snagged the bag, carrying them down to the kitchen and ignoring her quiet protests.


	4. 4: Reunion

4: Reunion

Gohan managed to consume four bottles of formula rather than the two Chi-Chi had thought he would. She didn’t seem to mind though, mentioning that she’d had to ration his food so that it’d last longer. The thought that Gohan wasn’t eating as much as he’d needed made his heart hurt. It’d hurt Chi-Chi too judging by the guilty look on her face.

He insisted she take a nap when Gohan was done eating, as she still looked tired. She did, but only after she called her father to let him know where she was and to bring some things, mostly more stuff for Gohan. She also, at his insistence, showed him how to change Gohan’s diaper so that Goku could do that if he needed to while she was sleeping.

They returned back upstairs before Krillin and master Roshi woke up. Goku wasn’t surprised though, it was only now approaching the time that he usually got up and neither of the other men liked having their sleep interrupted.

Still it wasn’t long after Chi-Chi fell asleep that he heard the other two get up and move around. He didn’t go down and greet them though. Not when he could watch over his wife and play with his son.

It wasn’t until he could feel Bulma, Yamcha and Yamcha’s ever present friend Puar approaching that he decided to join the others. As much as he didn’t want to leave Chi-Chi alone and vulnerable right now, he also didn’t want Bulma to come up when Chi-Chi wasn’t awake.

It did mean he had to take the still wide awake Gohan with him, since even if Gohan hadn’t yet mastered crawling it didn’t feel right to leave him alone with a sleeping Chi-Chi. Gohan thankfully seemed to trust him now, and didn’t start crying when he went down the stairs and away from Chi-Chi.

He made it to the bottom just in time for his oldest friend to barge in. “Okay Krillin, what’s this I heard about a baby?”

“Good morning Bulma, how are you. We’re fine by the way thanks for asking.” Goku bit back a chuckle at Krillin’s response. The darker part of his thoughts wanted to growl when she didn’t ask about Chi-Chi. Though he doubted it’d be happy if she _was_ asking about Chi-Chi.

Yamcha rolled his eyes and greeted Krillin properly and Goku decided to make his presence known.

“Morning Bulma, morning Yamcha. Morning Puar.” His hands were too full to wave, but only Krillin seemed to acknowledge he was up anyway. The other three were too busy staring at his son.

The scarred ex bandit was the first to speak. “Holy shit that’s a baby.” Puar smacked him on the head for some reason. Goku just chuckled.

“Yeah that’s what Krillin said the first time too. This is my son, Gohan!” A large thrill when through him when he said that. Just thinking about it was great but saying it out loud? He’d only done it this one time so far, but Goku didn’t think he’d ever get tired of introducing Gohan as his son. He didn’t hold his child up like Chi-Chi had when she introduced them. Gohan seemed perfectly happy to stay cradled in Goku’s arms and he was more than content to let Gohan stay there.

“His name’s Gohan?” That’s right, Krillin hadn’t heard his name before, had he? “And uh, where’s Chi-Chi?” He sounded strangely nervous and worried as he asked that for some reason.

“Upstairs taking a nap. She didn’t sleep well.” Krillin relaxed while Bulma approached. Thankfully he didn’t feel she was as much of a threat to Gohan as he felt she was to Chi-Chi. Even if she did like him in a more than friendly way, he knew she’d never try to harm a baby. Goku honestly doubted she’d try to harm Chi-Chi either, but sometimes his instincts seemed to have a mind of their own.

“He’s kind of cute,” she stuck her finger out to poke him in the tummy, but Gohan wiggled back further into Goku’s arms and whined.

Goku pulled him back a little to give him space and cooed in reassurance. “He’s a little wary around strangers.”

“He warmed up to you quickly enough.”

“That’s because Goku hardly left them alone ever since Chi-Chi got here.” Was Krillin’s dry response. Goku had to laugh at that because it was true. It shouldn’t be surprising to them that he wanted to stick by his wife’s side: what else had they expected him to do now that she was back?

“How do you-” Bulma cut herself off with a grimace. “Sorry I shouldn’t ask, it’s super rude, but how do you know he’s yours?” The other three tensed at the question but Goku could only blink in confusion. Seeing that, Bulma elaborated. “If she was pregnant when she left, Gohan would be around three or four months old by now, but he looks really small, maybe too small?”

There were honestly way too many ways for Goku to answer. The shape of Gohan’s jaw, his ears, his tail, the sounds he made, his appetite and many more little ways Goku was still finding. So he said the most important one first. “Chi-Chi’s his mom. She wouldn’t lie about having a kid.”

The four of them winced and he could guess what they were thinking. Even if it was the case, it wouldn’t change much. Though in all honesty, as horrible as it was, Goku didn’t think he would have warmed up to Gohan as quickly if the baby wasn’t his son; mostly because he’d have to reconcile with the fact that, willing or not, Chi-Chi was intimate with another male. But Goku still would have been his father even if it took days rather than seconds to warm up to him. Because his or not, Gohan was still Chi-Chi’s son, and he was Chi-Chi’s husband, making him Gohan’s father.

Even if Chi-Chi wasn’t the mother – which she had to be to make milk like that- Goku would still be the father because Chi-Chi would have chosen to be the mother.

Yamcha was the one to speak up this time. “Yeah but are _you_ , you know, the father?”

“Yes,” he drawled out, “Chi-Chi said I was, and she wouldn’t lie to me.” Honestly, Chi-Chi’s word should be good enough. Why was Gohan being his son so hard to believe? Then again, they hadn’t believed Chi-Chi wouldn’t leave him either. So Goku didn’t think their doubt meant much.

“But that means you would have to have had…” Krillin began with a red face before trailing off. Goku wasn’t sure why then again, most of his attention had shifted to Gohan, so he didn’t really spare much thought to what Krillin was being weird about now.

His small son had picked up on the tension that was starting to grow and had begun squirming. So Goku needed to adjust him a little and help him calm down a bit. Bulma suddenly gasped.

“He has a tail!” True enough, Gohan’s tail was now more clearly visible to the others, having wrapped around his wrist for security and comfort. “Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?” Maybe it was his imagination, but she sounded kind of nervous? He couldn’t think of a reason as to why though. Krillin had also started stuttering and spluttering at some point which, again, was weird but it also meant that whatever he said next would probably be loud.

Goku could only grin at that statement though. “Yeah! Isn’t it neat? It looks a lot like my old tail.”

“So that means you’re really a dad now? I wasn’t expecting that.”

He beamed at Yamcha. “I know! I’m still getting used to it too. But it’s amazing so far! Gohan’s so cute!”

“You had _sex_?!” And there was Krillin’s outburst. Though Goku was a little confused as to why his past intimacy with his wife was strange to his friend. Nor did he understand why it was so surprising to his friend when Krillin was the one who told him what marriage meant.

“Yes? I’m _married_.” Chi-Chi had said that every married couple did that, as if it was common knowledge. Did Krillin not know that part though? Maybe it wasn’t as common as he or Chi-Chi thought? “Did…did you not know that married people do that?”

Krillin started sputtering again. It wasn’t an answer but Goku had noticed that sometimes Krillin didn’t like to admit when he didn’t know something. It probably didn’t help that both Bulma and Yamcha sounded like they were muffling their laughter. Which was kind of mean. Their looks of shock were almost as bad, though why they were looking at _him_ rather than Krillin was beyond Goku.

Goku wasn’t usually the best at explaining things other than fighting techniques, but for Krillin he’d have to try. “You see Krillin, you were right when you said that married people promise to spend the rest of their lives together. However, when people get married they can have sex with each other and it’s usually considered normal. It also means they can have sex whenever they want, where ever they want, as long as no one else is around. Like in the kitc-”

Krillin cut him off with a yelp, “I know they have sex!” His face was so red it looked kind of like a tomato. Which reminded Goku that it was breakfast time. “I just, ugh,” he buried his face in his hands, “I just never imagined _you_ having sex.”

“I…never thought about you having sex either?” Was that something friends were supposed to think about? The only person he ever thought about having sex was Chi-Chi and even that was only with the idea of him being involved as well and that usually very quickly changed into him actually having sex with Chi-Chi. “Was… was I supposed to be?” Was he a bad friend? Or was that another thing that made him weird. That might explain Bulma’s behavior though.

“No!” Yamcha blurted out, “that’s not what he meant. It’s just that you…uh…”

“What they mean,” Bulma started, “is that you didn’t seem like the type to enjoy sex.”

“Oh.” That was still kind of strange to him. But he supposed they weren’t wrong in a way. He doubted he’d enjoy sex as much if it wasn’t with Chi-Chi. “I guess that makes sense.” Sort of, but not really? How could someone tell that sort of thing by looking at people?

A shocked squeak and a fascinated gurgle drew Goku’s attention completely away from the odd conversation. Puar had, at some point in their conversation moved to hover over Gohan and was making silly faces at him. Gohan wasn’t laughing but he didn’t seem scared either. And then he reached up and grabbed their tail.

Goku clicked his tongue without thinking about it in a gentle scolding manner. “Aw, hey, Gohan no.” He adjusted his hold on his son a bit in order to free one of his hands. Gently he pried the child’s delicate little fingers off of the fuzzy appendage. “Don’t grab Puar like that, they’re a friend.” He clicked again, just to make sure Gohan got the message that that wasn’t allowed. He knew he didn’t know a lot about manners, but grabbing tails was really rude. And painful.

Thankfully Gohan was more interested in his fingers than he had been with Puar’s tail, quickly abandoning it to grab at his fingers. He didn’t seem to register the light scolding but Goku was kind of okay with that for now. He wasn’t sure he scolded his son right anyway.

“It’s alright, he didn’t grab me that hard. But I can tell he’s going to be really strong.”

He laughed at that, “really? That’d be great!”

“Wow, it’s hard to believe you’ve only known about him for a day.” At his confused glance Yamcha elaborated. “You’ve really got this dad thing down.”

“Especially the baby talk.” Goku had to think for a second about Krillin’s comment before realizing he and Gohan must have been making more noises than he’d thought they’d been.

Before anything else could be said though, his stomach reminded him and everyone else that it was breakfast time.


	5. Rebuke

5: Rebuke

Chi-Chi woke up to the smell of something wonderful. It made her stomach roll a little but she’d gotten used to the nausea that came with hunger. She didn’t get up though. She didn’t want to. For the first time in months she felt safe, warm and comfortable and the fatigue that weighed her down and dragged at her bones finally felt like it was diminishing. She didn’t want to open her eyes to find she’d fallen asleep outside of a restaurant’s vents again.

It was a light childish coo and a deeper smoother trill that got her to open her eyes. Gohan was on his stomach not too far from the bed. Goku was in the same position looking adoringly at their son, giving Gohan his fingers to play with and making sounds at him.

Chi-Chi never told Goku, and honestly she wasn’t sure how to bring it up, but there was something unearthly about some of the noises he could make. Before everything horrible had happened she would try, whenever he was out of the house, to mimic some of those sounds in order to surprise him. She was always a little disappointed in herself that she could never get them to sound right; it was something important to Goku, even if he didn’t know why, so she wanted to share that with him. That they were sometime cute and often times sexy was just a bonus really. Not to mention, the look on his face whenever she’d cooed at Gohan had filled her with so much joy she thought she’d burst. Just that look made it well worth any and all practice she’d put into it.

Regardless she couldn’t even began to get close to mimicking most of his noises.

She’d tried her best when Gohan had first started making those same sounds. In part, like she said before, to give Gohan a little bit of familiarity with Goku, and in part because it soothed and calmed him down faster and more reliably than rocking or singing. However judging by his reaction to Goku, her efforts clearly weren’t the same as the real thing.

It wasn’t something she minded too much right now, not when it allowed her two favorite people in the world to bond with each other.

She must have made a sound because Goku suddenly looked up at her, chirping brightly and affectionately in greeting. On a whim she tried chirping back. It still didn’t sound the same to her ears but it made Goku’s face go bright red.

That was not what she’d expected. Chi-Chi had never actually managed to make him blush before, at least not without getting physical or blatantly suggesting physical things. She absolutely had to do that again.

She’d have to explore that more at a later time though. For now she sat up and tried to rub the fatigue out of her eyes. “Morning.”

Still red-faced, Goku squeaked out something similar to what she’d said. She had to fight back a giggle, but she’d always found him to be so cute whenever he’d get flustered. That was probably why he’d always try to make _her_ blush, come to think of it. Her eye caught sight of a small low table full of plates, reminding her of the delicious smells she’d been trying to ignore.

“Breakfast?”

“Mmhm,” he hastily cleared his throat and his blush began to die down. “Yamcha and Krillin made it.”

“Looks good,” she stretched slowly and carefully before getting up. “Yamcha’s here?”

“Puar and Bulma are here too.” He picked Gohan up and cradled him against his chest. It warmed her heart to see them getting along so well so quickly. “And yeah, Yamcha is a pretty good cook. Not as good as you though.”

She huffed, he always said she was a good cook, even when comparing her cooking to her dad’s, who’d won cooking contests before. “You’re a bit biased on that.” She leaned forward to nuzzle her nose against Gohan’s, giving a small chirp as she did so. It made Gohan giggle like crazy and she was more than close enough to hear Goku’s pleased purr.

Chi-Chi moved up to kiss his cheek but he caught her lips instead. Even in the early days of their relationship, his kisses always made her feel warm and special. Like always she wanted to stay and bask in those feelings, but as usual she forced herself to break away first. Now wasn’t the time to make out with her husband.

Goku had other ideas. With a sound that seemed to combine a whine and a growl he pulled her back in. Despite his aggressive action, his tongue was gentle as he silently asked for permission to go past her lips. That gentleness, more than anything, spurred her into escalating their little kissing session.

She doubted either of them were surprised at that. Goku wasn’t ever rough or harsh in any sense of the word, yet him being so gentle and soft when they were intimate always got her heated more than it had any right to. Chi-Chi was sure he’d exploited that fact many times. Not that she minded.

It was only when she felt their son squirm against her that she managed to pull away for a second time. “Goku-ah!” He didn’t pull her lips back to his this time, instead he focused on her jaw, nipping and licking at them with wonderful efficiency. “We-we should…mm…” Her legs felt like jelly and she wanted nothing more than to let him take her then and there. Chi-Chi couldn’t even blame the time away for her desperation. Goku had always had a way of making her lose her self-control when it came to sex.

“Missed you,” he rumbled out, moving his devastating lips to her neck. “Missed kissing you, missed tasting you.” With each statement he performed that action, making her burn at the contact. He shifted a bit, making sure their son wasn’t pressed between them before his free hand went to her hip, pulling her close and grinding her hip against his pelvis. He buried his face into the crook of her neck, nipping at it and breathing deeply. “Want you, Chi-Chi.”

Given where his face was, she couldn’t see his eyes, but she knew how they’d look. Coal dark yet burning hotter than Mt. Frypan ever could. All for her; only for her. Her own eyes fluttered shut, as she lost herself in the heated feelings he brought forth. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, “Goku…”

“Aobouau!” Hearing Gohan’s voice so suddenly caused Chi-Chi to release Goku and back up a little. Their little boy was pouting up at the both of them and gave a sharp sounding click; a sound she hadn’t known he was capable of making. It was adorable and made her feel a little guilty for not paying attention to him before. She gently took him back and cooed at him in apology.

The betrayed look Goku was giving their son, however, was hilarious.

Judging by the way that look transferred to her, she hadn’t been able to stifle her laughter enough. “’s not funny.” She just giggled and took her son back. That look turned into a genuine pout. “I really do want you, Chi-Chi.”

Her amused smile turned shy. “I want you too.” It felt weird admitting that in front of their son, but Goku didn’t seem to care and it was unlikely Gohan would remember this later anyway. “But we should probably have breakfast before it gets too cold.” It might be cold already; she honestly didn’t know how long Goku had been waiting for her to get up.

Before she could blink Goku had them all seated at the small foldable table, Gohan was still in her arms and she herself somehow ended up in Goku’s lap. Though judging by what was poking her butt, that was entirely on purpose. A part of her wanted to squirm and tease him a little, but that would probably take things too far too soon, especially with Gohan in the room. Besides, she really did need to eat.

Chi-Chi had to admit she was a little surprised at where her husband’s hands were though. Normally Goku’s arms would be wrapped firmly around her waist, but he seemed content, for now, to keep his hands on her hips.

“What would you like to eat?”

He buried his face into her hair. Not for the first time since getting up earlier she regretted giving herself a quick rub down rather than a shower last night. She’d been far too tired to do anything else. Not that she could have really washed her hair if she had taken longer, there hadn’t been any shampoo as far as she’d seen. Goku had a sensitive nose and she couldn’t imagine how bad her hair smelled right now. At least her dad would be bringing her toiletries. It’d been far too long since she’d had an actual shower.

“It’s fine, I already ate.”

She couldn’t quite help the surprised noise she made. Goku never turned down food, even if he’d just finished a feast minutes before. “Do I really look that bad?” Chi-Chi held back a grimace; she hadn’t meant to ask that out loud.

She also hadn’t had the courage or the energy to look in the mirror last night. In all honesty it hadn’t been her weight she’d been worried about. She actually thought she was around the same weight she’d been at when she’d been taken from home. Though, yes, she could see her ribs and she certainly had lost some muscle mass, but she wasn’t _skeletal_. She’d just figured she’d lost her baby weight at odd places. Goku’s reaction seemed to disagree with her though.

“When was the last time you ate?” She half wanted to pout at his answering question but what he was asking made her pause.

Between running, caring for Gohan, making sure he had food, putting together her desperate plan, and hiding; she couldn’t actually recall having any food. At least not yesterday. But surely she’d had _something_. However Chi-Chi honestly couldn’t remember eating anything the day before yesterday either.

Instead of answering her husband she reached around her son and grabbed a bowl of miso soup. Goku huffed at her non answer, but moved so that his chin was resting on her shoulder and shifted so that he could entertain their son while she ate.

Finishing the bowl didn’t take long but she was hungry and it hadn’t been a big bowl to start with. The rice went next, but it had been more of a struggle to finish, even though the size of the bowl was the same. The miso itself was more than what she’d been used to eating lately. She ended up stopping with about a third of the rice left.

“I think that’s enough for me. Do you want the rest?”

“You barely ate anything.” True, compared to what she’d eat before her kidnapping, her meal now was barely anything. But it had been more than what she’d eaten in the past week.

She closed her eyes and leaned against her husband’s firm chest, too full to do anything else. “I can’t eat anymore though. I’ll feel sick.”

“But Chi-Chi, you need to eat.”

“I can’t just…” she sighed, “I can’t just go from eating a little to eating a lot. It doesn’t work like that.”

“Why not? If you haven’t been eating enough then shouldn’t you eat more to make up for it?”

“The stomach’s like a muscle, Goku. If you’re used to exercising it a certain amount than a little more or a little less of that exercise is fine. But if you stop for a while then try picking up where you left off, you’ll get hurt.” At his sound of understanding she continued. “It’s the same with eating some kinds of foods. I haven’t been able to get a lot of this kind of food in a while. Which is why I stuck to miso and rice.” Rather than the omelet, which was honestly her preferred breakfast food. However, it was probably too rich for her right now. She turned and kissed his cheek. “I’ll get better, I just have to build myself up first.”

At her kiss he pulled her closer, pressing their lower bodies together. “Why- how did it get so bad?” She honestly appreciated him changing his question from why to how. Her father, when she’d called him had asked nothing but why questions for her. Questions that she’d been too tired to answer before and would have taken too long to explain. Questions that made her feel guilty for having to answer, like she should have done more, though that hadn’t been her father’s intent.

Chi-Chi idly rubbed her son’s back as he squirmed in her lap. It was almost time to feed him again. “After Gohan was born I had to choose. Adults can tolerate being hungry far better than children can. And- and letting a child go hungry can really damage them in the long run.” Words could not express how horrible of a failure she felt like when she had to deny Gohan his fill. She’d justified it, telling herself it was better for him to be a little hungry now rather than starving later. But she’d still felt like the worst person in the world, especially when he’d learned not to cry for more food.

It wasn’t until Goku wiped some tears from her face that she realized she was crying. “It wasn’t enough, I couldn’t get enough food for him. He’s still so small, I think he’s underweight. I-” Chi-Chi couldn’t hold back a sob this time. Because she was a horrible mother who couldn’t even feed her baby. She’d tried giving everything she could to Gohan, but it hadn’t been enough.

This wasn’t a new feeling for her, but before she hadn’t allowed herself to feel that way, she’d pushed those thoughts and emotions aside for later. There had been no time or space available to cry or even acknowledge those feelings then. All that had mattered was keeping Gohan alive and as safe as possible until she could get him to Goku, where it’d be guaranteed he’d be safe. And she herself was the only one she’d trusted to get Gohan to Goku.

Goku just held her while she cried. Crooning to her and distracting Gohan when he needed it. When her tears died down he wordlessly handed her a glass of water. Even as she drank, their son was starting to whimper for food again and she wordlessly stopped drinking to adjust her shirt for him to feed.

“Chi-Chi?”

“Mm?” She felt a bit better after crying, but it also left her feeling worn out and raw. But there was relief now that she could cry, that she had time to, that she’d be safe while doing so.

Goku gently turned her chin so he could meet her eyes. “You and Gohan will _never_ go hungry again. I promise.” His eyes were intense, Chi-Chi had never seem him so serious before. Not even when he was fighting for his life against Piccolo over a year ago.

She smiled and gave a small nod. “I know.” She’d never once doubted his ability to provide food for them. The only reason she’d been so pushy for him to get a job was for the schooling of their, at the time, hypothetical future children. “Although speaking of food…”

“Yeah?”

“Could you finish up?” She gestured to the mostly full breakfast table, “a lot of it is probably too rich for me to eat and it’ll go bad if it’s left out.”

Her husband chuckled in response. “Yeah, I think I could handle having seconds.”


	6. Report

6: Report

Goku honestly wasn’t surprised that they needed to make more bottles for Gohan. Though this time he was the only one to go downstairs to make them. Chi-Chi hadn’t felt ready to be around that many people yet. They’d also likely demand explanations as to why she’d been missing. Goku honestly wanted to know too, but she’d asked to wait for her father to be there so she wouldn’t have to explain more than once.

There was also the fact that she had been still feeding him from her breasts and she hadn’t wanted anyone to see. It made Goku feel special that she hadn’t even thought twice about letting him stay while she fed their son.

On the topic of her body though, Goku could admit he was starting to feel a little bit frustrated that he couldn’t really get time alone with his wife. Despite the fact that he had been by her side since her arrival, every instance of intimacy they had together had been interrupted by their son. Not that he was upset with Gohan, their son was only a baby after all, but that didn’t stop the frustration from building.

He’d thought it’d be easy enough to wait for another day at least, to give her and Gohan time to settle and to track down and destroy whoever thought to take them away. But he’d honestly been aching for her ever since he let her inside the house. This last half hour only made it worse. Goku could still feel the way her pulse fluttered against his lips, the way her body pressed up against his, how her hands had circled him, pulling him even closer. How the scent of her arousal slowly began wafting up…

Goku shook his head to refocus on the present. Gohan needed food and he had to make it. Luckily his friends and master Roshi were outside for some reason - probably because there was more room out there- so his distraction wasn’t noticed by anyone. It also meant he could focus more on making the formula and not be distracted by his friends talking.

However making his son food wasn’t all that challenging when he knew how to do it, so despite himself his mind drifted back towards his wife. He really did want to get her naked. Not just because he wanted to be intimate with her. He wanted – needed- to see her body. She still hadn’t mentioned anything about her left side and Goku needed to know any other area he had to avoid touching. A darker part of him also wanted to know every scratch and scar she’d gotten since she’d disappeared and who had given it to her.

Quickly enough, the bottles were full and he got to return upstairs to be with his wife and hungry son. As he ascended the stairs, he could feel the familiar ki of Chi-Chi’s father approach and the strange ki that’d been hovering just inside his sensing range back off. Goku wasn’t too worried about that though; it’d been doing that ever since he opened the door to his wife. It was probably wrong of him, but Goku couldn’t help but be a little miffed that the Ox King arrived. It was already impossible to get her alone when it was just Gohan, but with her dad hovering around as well there would be no chance at any sort of intimate moment with Chi-Chi.

He entered the room just as their son was finishing up eating from Chi-Chi, who gratefully took the first bottle from him. Goku sat next to her, burying his face into her shoulder and hair.

“Your dad’s here.”

She tensed up a little. Had Goku not been touching her, he probably wouldn’t have even noticed. His wife sighed, “I guess there’s not much point in putting off talking about it anymore.”

“If you don’t want to-”

“No, it’s something I have to do…Something I should have done before, in all honesty. I just…” She bit her lip. “It’s hard. And I hate that it’s hard for me. Goku I’ve seen people go through far worse than what I’ve had to but-”

He kissed her neck and nuzzled into her. He just barely resisted the urge to pull her into his lap again, it would have only distracted him. Goku really wished he knew any and all injuries she had right now because he really wanted to hold her tightly and close. “You were scared. And hurt,” she was _still_ scared and hurt. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. It’s okay if it affects you as badly as worse things affected other people.” He kissed along her jawline. The very familiar hunger for more was making itself known. “I won’t think less of you.” He nipped at her skin and, despite his choice seconds before, pulled her into his lap.

There was something about her that just utterly ruined his self-control. Especially now, after he’d been without her for so long. Wasn’t it just a few hours ago he’d decided against having sex with her while their son was awake? Now he’d just settle for Gohan to be out of Chi-Chi’s arms, awake or not, in the room or not.

He almost didn’t pull away from her neck and jaw when he heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. No one else on the island walked that heavily other than the Ox King, and he’d seen them in far more intimate situations before he’d learned to call ahead. However, Chi-Chi did dislike it greatly whenever her dad walked in on them like that so Goku began nuzzling her shoulder instead.

Unfortunately Chi-Chi heard the footsteps too and must have figured it was her dad because before he could object Goku found himself with an arm full of still eating Gohan and Chi-Chi moving towards the door, adjusting her shirt to better cover her chest. Father and son shared a pout at the loss of her presence. Goku quickly got the hang of feeding his son while Chi-Chi greeted her dad.

“Daddy!”

“Princess!” Goku had to swallow a snarl as her remarkably strong father hugged her tightly, squeezing around her waist and, coincidently, her sides. Even her almost constantly guarded, likely injured, left side. Chi-Chi didn’t react though so maybe it wasn’t as bad as Goku had feared. He still had to remind himself that the Ox King was _family_ and would never want Chi-Chi hurt. It worked, sort of, Goku still very much wanted to punch out his father-in-law and keep him and everyone other than Gohan far away from his currently vulnerable wife.

Goku was too preoccupied with both his instincts telling him to hide Chi-Chi away until she was healthier and feeding Gohan to notice his wife talking to her father. Well he didn’t notice the words spoken, at least, he was very aware of both their movements and actions. Therefore he did notice them approaching, but he didn’t react until Chi-Chi snuggled against his side and her father settled himself before them.

He grinned at the older man and if his smile had a few too many teeth to be entirely friendly, well, no one ever noticed the silent threat before so Goku doubted anyone would start now. It was honestly surprising how quickly his opinion on some people changed. Before now the Ox King was the only other person who thought there was something wrong with Chi-Chi’s disappearance. He was the only one on Goku’s side. Now Goku just wanted the man to go away and leave him with his wife and son.

The Ox King’s return smile was open, honest and soft as he looked down on Gohan. “And who’s this little guy?”

Goku’s smile turned much more genuine at that. “This is my son, Gohan!” Yeah, he was _never_ going to get tired of introducing Gohan like that.

Gohan only burped in response to the attention and reached for his mom. Goku easily handed him over and Chi-Chi began rocking him. “When he’s asleep,” she started, “I’ll head down and tell you all everything, alright?”

“There’s no rush sweetie. You take all the time you need.” Her father gently patted her shoulder with one of his large hands and pulled out a capsule. “I’ve got everything you asked for and some extras I thought you might need, especially when you said you had a baby with you.” Without another word, he clicked the top and tossed it to an empty spot in the room. With a poof of smoke and a sharp smell that reminded Goku of a lightning strike there was a small pile of things there.

It would never cease to amaze Goku how so much stuff can fit into such a small object. He still wasn’t sure why Bulma insisted it wasn’t magic or witchcraft. Not even Chi-Chi could explain capsules in a way that made sense. Chi-Chi got up to examine the pile, it bothered Goku that she had to use the wall to stand up easily. It also bothered him how slowly and carefully she’d move generally, but he figured in this instance at least some of it was due to not wanting to bother Gohan who was looking rather sleepy now that he’d eaten his fill.

It wasn’t long before Chi-Chi had pulled together a small group of clothes and soaps for a shower later. The four of them headed downstairs once Chi-Chi deemed Gohan to be asleep.

They all gathered outside and Chi-Chi, at her father’s insistence, handed their son over to him. Goku managed to grab one of the few beach chairs for her, though no one else objected to that, and settled himself at her feet. The rest of his friends made a semi-circle around them.

“Before we begin,” Bulma, surprisingly started. “Please, _please_ , don’t tell me you payed money for _that_ ,” she jerked a thumb to the air car sitting at the water’s edge, “hunk of absolute junk.”

Chi-Chi gave a nervous giggle, “no I, uh, stole it.”

Her dad gave her a disapproving look but Bulma just snorted. “You probably did the owner a favor than; could that thing even _fly_?”

“Barely.”

“Chi-Chi, you _stole_ it?” The disapproval covered her father’s voice like a blanket on a hot day. Smothering and unnecessary, in Goku’s opinion. “You should know better than to do that.”

His wife, however was clearly not bothered by it. “I don’t want to hear about that from _you_ , dad.” Well, not bothered too much.

“I think,” master Roshi interrupted, “we’re getting a little off topic here. And Bulma, it’s hot out, why don’t you change into something a little lighter and more comfortable?”

“Yamcha, punch him for me?”

Master Roshi snorted, “he’s my student, he wouldn’t hit his master-ow!” The former bandit only shrugged at his master’s glare.

“Thank you Yamcha.”

“No problem babe.”

In all honesty, Goku was still a little wary about letting Bulma be around Chi-Chi. There was really no reason to be, Bulma wasn’t the type to hurt someone just to be with another person. Besides, even in her weakened state, Goku could tell that Chi-Chi would be able to beat Bulma in a fight. Still, a part of him really wanted to prove to Bulma that he belonged to Chi-Chi and no one else. However now wasn’t the time or the place for something like that.

Soon enough, his friends calmed down enough to listen to his wife. She was still nervous about talking, he could tell, but there was honestly nothing she could say that would make him think any less of her.

“Do- do you know what happened, the day I disappeared? That Goku and I had a fight?” The group as a whole nodded. “Well, I went to take a walk to, you know, clear my head and calm down. Just when I was going to head back and get started on dinner I was approached by these men. They were dressed oddly and they kept asking questions about Goku. What kind of things he liked, his thoughts on how the world was… It got strange.”

She leaned her leg against his shoulder. “They said they saw him at the World Tournament and wanted to know if he was interested in a job. But considering what we’d just fought about… I told them no.” She closed her eyes and sighed, “they didn’t like that answer, but I think they’d expected it because the next thing I knew, something hit me.

“I must have been knocked out because I woke up somewhere else. I was in a van, I knew that much. I was tied up and all I could hear was them saying how Goku would have to join them because they had me.” She put a hand on Goku’s shoulder. “I didn’t really understand much else of what they were talking about. They kept mentioning rebuilding their army or something like that. It didn’t sound like anything good though, so I knew I had to escape.”

Goku covered her hand with his. Despite how it’d turned out and how mad she’d been at the time, he was glad she’d taken his wants into account and refused a job on his behalf.

“It wasn’t easy getting out, but somehow I managed. I had no clue where I was or how long I’d been unconscious for though. But it was night and I think I was somewhere north? All I knew was that I wasn’t near Mount Paozu or the Diablo Desert. So I just picked a direction and ran,” she shrugged. “They found me just after dawn, but I managed to get away again.” Chi-Chi rubbed at her face with her free hand. “That kept happening, over and over again, until I was too tired to run or fight back. They got me and I blacked out again.

“This time, when I woke up I was locked up in some sort of lab. There was no one else around and I managed to escape again. I’d been taken somewhere far to the northwest, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get back considering I had no money or ID, but I figured if I could get to a police station or even just a phone it’d be fine. It took three days before they found me again.”

For some reason Krillin got up and went inside. It was kind of annoying for his friend to do that, but Goku was more focused on Chi-Chi’s words. “It was more of a fight this time and I did manage to get away…but it wasn’t easy. I managed to find a small town to recover in. But when I tried to call home no one was there.”

Goku’s shoulders sagged guiltily; he was never very good at sitting around indoors. Even though in the early days of her disappearance her father had told him to wait near the phone in case she called, he’d spend all day flying around on the Nimbus looking for her. He could have found her so much sooner if he’d waited. He thought he heard Bulma say something about a machine but he honestly wasn’t paying that much attention to anyone other than Chi-Chi.

A gentle squeeze on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts. There was nothing he could do to change the past, Chi-Chi was here now and that’s what was important. Fortunately, Goku didn’t miss much of Chi-Chi’s story as Krillin had returned with a glass of water. Chi-Chi smiled gratefully at him as she took the drink. It was really thoughtful of his friend.

His wife continued after taking a drink. “I couldn’t get through to dad’s home, or even the Pleasant Valley area in general.”

“Mmn, we _have_ been having phone issues for a while,” her dad mused. It seemed annoying and unlucky but Goku didn’t know why it was that important.

Chi-Chi must have known something Goku didn’t though since she nodded. “After a while I couldn’t even connect to our home either. Anyway, I had only managed to stay for a while before they found me again. After that it was much the same. They’d find me, I’d fight and get away, then recover for a few days before they’d find me again. Then I managed to find a small place with a clinic and I found I was pregnant.” Her hand left Goku’s shoulder and rested on her stomach, but her gaze was on their son still sleeping in her dad’s arms. “Fighting didn’t seem like such a good idea after that. There was too much risk of one of them getting lucky and hurting my baby.

“It wasn’t long after that _they_ realized I was pregnant as well; they were much less violent about trying to capture me at least. They still chased after me and kept me trapped in the north, even though I did manage to slowly make my way east. It seemed like they let me recover a bit longer between harrying me as well, though I’m not sure how intentional that was.

“They did manage to keep me away from larger cities or towns that had police in them.” She shuddered, “I know it’s cowardly but… Just seeing their symbol terrified me, and I wasn’t about to risk the chance of another confrontation when it could’ve hurt Gohan. Then he was born and I still couldn’t risk fighting them. Only it was even harder, because I couldn’t feed Gohan and myself most of the time and-” She cut herself off, taking a deep breath.

“I couldn’t stay anywhere long enough to get a job. Some people were kind enough to offer me money, others gave me some things. I had to steel the rest. It wasn’t enough, usually. It took some time as well, but I managed to find the coordinates of this island. I figure it wouldn’t be as difficult for me to get to as home would be. So I stole the air car…”

“And you planned to leave Gohan here while you lead them away.” Master Roshi finished for her. “We found the letter in the box you were carrying Gohan in.”

Chi-Chi nodded tiredly, “yeah.”

They all lapsed into silence at that conclusion. Goku knew she left a lot out, but he supposed it didn’t really matter right now.

It was Yamcha that broke the silence. “How many guys were there?”

“At least five. They only ever came at me in groups of three though, and a lot of them looked the same.”

“Why didn’t you call us?” Bulma asked. “If they somehow figured you’d call Goku or your dad, you could have called Kame house, or even me.”

“I didn’t know your phone numbers, and a random woman calling Capsule Corp. saying that they’re the wife of a friend of Bulma’s is just going to get that number blocked.”

The blue haired woman grimaced but nodded, though Goku really didn’t understand why. The people at Bulma’s dad’s workplace seemed pretty nice to him.

“Did you try calling the police?” Bulma continued.

“Several times, that only led to the people chasing me to show up faster.”

“Who were the ones chasing you?” Krillin asked.

Chi-Chi shrugged at that question. “I don’t know, they never said their name. But they had their symbol everywhere. It looked like two connected triangles with two R’s facing each other.”

That sounded familiar, but Goku couldn’t place it. From the look on his friend’s faces, they couldn’t quite place it either.

“How good were they at fighting?” He asked. They’d have to be good, right? Chi-Chi was a strong fighter.

“Not very good.” He looked up at her in confusion. He honestly had a hard time imagining his wife being defeated in a fight. Granted the first few times he could understand, she was hurt, tired and probably hungry as well. But after? She looked away apologetically and his heart sank, he hadn’t meant to make her feel bad or guilty. “They had strange weapons with them. Their team work was also very good, I couldn’t focus on one of them long enough to take them down.”

Bulma had perked up a bit when she mentioned weapons. “What kind of weapons?”

Chi-Chi grimaced. “They had at least two and they were color coded, thankfully so I can even tell you which one does what. They have a purple one that shoots some sort of sticky substance, it slowed me down a lot but it was also the safest one to get hit with. The other one, the green one shot out acid and that…” Her eyes went distant and her arm went to her left side, not to guard it this time, but to touch it as if remembering something. She snapped out of it quickly though. “Th-thankfully water seems to get it off well enough. They stopped using it on me after I started showing-”

She stopped talking but it sounded like she’d wanted to say more. Goku didn’t push her though, none of the others did either. He wasn’t sure what she meant by showing but whatever it was, he was glad that they stopped.


	7. Risqué

7: Risqué

They stayed silent for a while before Chi-Chi stood up. “If that’s all the questions, I’d like to take a shower and change before Gohan wakes up.”

She didn’t wait for them to object, quickly retreating back inside. Despite how carefully she moved, Goku hadn’t even gotten the chance to get up so he could follow her. A part of him was reluctant to leave Gohan without either Chi-Chi or himself nearby, but if he couldn’t trust the Ox King with his son, who could he trust?

He honestly didn’t care what his friends were doing at the moment, though as he entered the house he could hear Bulma talking about how she couldn’t blame Chi-Chi for wanting to change clothes.

He met her at the base of the stairs, her arms were already full of the things she’d need to use to get clean.

“Can I join you?”

She blinked in surprise at that before blushing. “Why- that- I don’t think-”

“Please? I want to make sure you’re okay.”

“Goku, I’m fine.”

How could she just say something like that? “You’ve been guarding your left side this entire time.” Gently he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Even if it isn’t anything to worry about, I want to know. I need to see it with my own eyes. Please?” He swallowed down a whine that was starting to build in his throat. If she refused now, after he’d explained why, he’d accept it. He’d have to, even though he wouldn’t like it. Whining would just make her feel guilty and like she had to let him join her.

Much to his relief, she nodded though her face was still red.

She turned shy again once the bathroom door was closed, placing her clothes on the floor, her soaps in the shower and she was avoiding having to look at him. Goku couldn’t help but eye her intensely. There was very little change in her arms and legs, other than how skinny they were now. He was most worried about her left side, but she didn’t seem inclined to hurry up and show him.

So with a shrug he got undressed, making her squeak adorably. “Goku!”

“What? My body’s changed too, you know.”

“N-Not by _that_ much!” Despite her clear embarrassment she wasn’t looking away from him now. Goku grinned and a purr built up in his throat, glad she still liked the way he looked. Despite her interest and his own increasingly obvious desire to touch her he stayed where he was, giving her time to take things at her own pace.

With a deep breath she let the boxers she’d been wearing drop to the floor. He still couldn’t see much of her body, due to the length of the shirt. Luckily he didn’t have to wait that long before she discarded the shirt as well.

He couldn’t help but inhale sharply at the sight of her left side. Splashed along her ribs was a pink puckered scar about the size of his hand. It was wrinkly and some parts looked almost melted. Before he could think twice about it he was at her side, fingers hovering over the wound though he didn’t dare try to touch it.

“They did this?” His voice came out as more of a snarl and he felt much the same as when he found Krillin dead from the Demon King Piccolo’s minion. The wound had clearly healed over as it neither looked nor smelled fresh, it still looked painful and Goku couldn’t imagine how horrible it felt when it was just inflicted.

Only her gentle hands holding on to his own stopped him from storming out and taking revenge right then and there. “It’s okay,” her voice was a soft murmur. “It doesn’t hurt. It just looks kind of ugly-”

“Nothing about you is ugly.”

That at least made her laugh, even though he was completely serious. “You’d say that even if I turned into a toad monster.”

“Yeah? You’d still be Chi-Chi.” That earned him a kiss. He wasn’t sure why because he’d only been stating the obvious but he wasn’t about to complain about it. “Are you okay? Earlier your dad hugged you around there.”

“Is that why you kept growling at him?”

“I was growling?”

“Not very loudly, I felt it more than heard it. But I _am_ fine. The truth is…” She hesitated, “the truth is that I can’t feel anything from that part.” Chi-Chi gently started massaging his hands when he let out a pained whine. “The doctor said that the nerves in my skin were damaged in that area. That that could happen with bad burns. But it’s only on my skin and some surface muscle. My ribs and the rest of it are fine. It’s only the top bit that’s numb.”

“That doesn’t sound fine to me.” His voice was shaky and he didn’t even know what kind of noise he was making, or even what he was feeling. He was glad that she wasn’t currently hurt but at the same time she wouldn’t be able to feel if that area was injured. Goku could recall the first time his arm went numb from sleeping in an odd position. His Grandpa had thought he was dying because he’d cried so much. He himself had thought his arm was dead and was scared it’d happen to the rest of his limbs. He hadn’t been a fan of the ‘pins and needles’ feeling that came afterwards either. Goku mentally shuddered; if that was what needles felt like then he really didn’t want to get poked with them at all.

Sometimes when he was really sleepy he thought that was why he couldn’t feel his tail, before remembering it was gone. Other times it felt like his tail was tensed so tightly he could barely move. Thankfully that feeling only ever lasted for a couple seconds though.

Regardless, Goku was not a fan of the idea that Chi-Chi couldn’t feel a part of herself. However there wasn’t much he could do about it at the moment. Goku also couldn’t spend the whole time looking at that one spot on her body. He gently placed his hands on her hips as he turned his attention to the rest of her body.

The second scar that caught his eye was a straight thin one that was a couple inches below her belly button. When he made a questioning noise about that one, Chi-Chi actually smiled, albeit a little sadly. “When Gohan was ready to be born, I wasn’t strong enough to push him out myself. They had to remove him from there.”

“Oh…” That still sounded kind of bad, but it didn’t look so bad and it didn’t sound like she disliked that scar like she had with the other one. “Where- where was he supposed to come out?”

Her face turned redder than the roof of Kame house and for some reason she whispered the answer into his ear, even though they were the only ones in the room.

“From _there_!?”

“Shush! It’s embarrassing!”

“But-But he’s so big!” At least in comparison to that part of his wife. “How!?”

“He was smaller when he was first born!”

“How much smaller?” The size she indicated with her hands did little to alleviate his shock. “But that’s still- _I_ barely fit in there! And that’s the part that’s _supposed_ to!” That was at least until they learned it was much more comfortable and pleasurable it was for Chi-Chi if he touched her a bunch first. He didn’t mind, it felt better to him too when she was all wet and warm from his hands and mouth. Still, his cock was way smaller than what a newborn Gohan apparently was.

“Goku!” Her voice was more of a whine by now, her hands were covering her face in a poor attempt to hide her blush. “ _Please_!”

“Okay, okay.” He held his hands up in surrender as he dropped the subject. Still, it was no wonder they had to cut their son out. He honestly couldn’t imagine anyone pushing anything that size out of a hole that big. Then again, from what she’d said Chi-Chi had expected herself to be able to. Well, he figured, if anyone was strong enough to do something like that it’d be his wife.

He put his hands back on her hip, his thumb gently and tentatively rubbing at the border of the scar on her side. She didn’t react to that touch but, from what she’d said, he hadn’t expected her to.

Goku resumed his examination of her body while she calmed down. There were a few other spots scattered on her shoulders, upper thighs and across her body that looked kind of like the scar on her side did, but they were much smaller and didn’t look nearly as bad as that big one. A few were almost too faint for him to see.

One of which was just below her collar bone and he couldn’t quite keep himself from kissing it. She squeaked at the action but she didn’t pull away or object too much when he started moving from scar to scar. Given the way she shivered and shuddered, those scars at least weren’t numb and if how she leaned into his kisses was any indication, she very much enjoyed the attention he was giving her.

The skin to skin contact between the two of them felt fantastic. Even more so when he pulled her close to him after he abandoned her scars and kissed her lips. He knew he’d missed the feeling of her body pressed against his with nothing between them, but he hadn’t realized just how much. His hands were moving all over her body, unable to decide where to linger. He wanted to touch everywhere on her. Chi-Chi’s own hands began rubbing at his shoulders, teasing the option that they’d go into his hair. They hadn’t really done much more than light touches and kisses but he was already hard and aching for more.

Eventually the need for air meant he had to separate from her mouth, but that just gave him the opportunity to move down her neck. Clearly Chi-Chi had missed being intimate with him as well, if the way she was panting and pulling him closer was any indication. The small needy sounds that accompanied her rapid breathing made him purr loudly and deeply.

“Mm, Goku,” the way she gasped his name sent his heart racing. “We- we shouldn’t. This isn’t home. And Gohan- Ah!”

He bit at her shoulder lightly, just the way he knew she liked it. “’s fine. I locked the door.” He kissed where he’d bitten, before moving on and biting her again. “We’ll be quiet too.” He didn’t want to be. He wanted to hear her scream his name and to be able to let her know just how much he liked being intimate with her. But she wouldn’t like that and he didn’t really want anyone to know what she sounded like when having sex. “And Gohan’s fine. He’s-” He cut himself off with a groan as she shoved her hands into his hair.

It wasn’t long before the small room was filled with the scent of their arousals and the gasps and quiet moans from both of them. The sounds and smells she was making in particular were driving him to the edge. They hadn’t even gotten to the more intimate parts yet!

Goku wasn’t sure which one of them made the choice to settle down on the floor, but he gladly used their new position to turn his wife around and pull her onto his lap, pressing her back into his chest and sucking on her shoulder. One of his hands went between her legs while his other grabbed at her breasts.

Her sudden hiss of pain felt like ice had been poured into his veins. Both his hands immediately went back to her hips where he knew it was safe for him to touch. “Chi-Chi?”

“S-Sorry,” she panted out, “you’re fine. My chest is just- just a little sensitive.”

Goku nuzzled into her neck. “Okay. You don’t want me touching them?”

She nodded, “I didn’t think it’d hurt that much.”

“It’s fine.” He nipped at her again. The skin on her neck was starting to look red from his efforts, much to his private glee. One of his hands was already making its way back to her damp curls. “I’ll just have to touch you elsewhere,” he growled out.

“Please,” came the whimpered response.

His fingers eagerly plunged between her folds, his thumb circling and pressing into her sensitive nub while his other fingers teased and stretched her opening. She gave a loud gasp at the contact before taking a hand from his hair and covering her mouth with it. He moved his mouth from her neck to her ear while his other hand explored her waist and stomach. A few of her scars, he’d found, were sensitive in a good way and he relentlessly took advantage of that.

Before long she was writhing and bucking on his lap. Her second hand had long since left his hair to grab at his wrist for balance. She’d tried stroking him but as much as he liked it, Goku had to put a stop to that; anything more than incidental touches there would probably make him finish too soon.

When her legs started trembling and her muffled sounds took on a certain pitch he removed his hand from her core. She whined out his name as he turned them over, leaving him on top and her pressed against the floor. He rubbed his cock against her soaked slit and even that was nearly too much for him to take.

“I’m mm, going to go inside. Kay?”

“Please, Goku!” She buried her face in her arms as he lined himself up.

With a quick snap of his hips, he was in. Goku didn’t really have time to take in how good and soft and warm she felt before instinct had him moving again. His grip on her hip was nearly bruising and he barely had the presence of mind to bring a hand down to rub and pinch at her clit. He refused to climax without her feeling that same pleasure.

It wasn’t long before she was muffling her cries with her arms and he felt her walls flutter and squeeze around him, spurring his own release. He tried to hold back his own sounds of pleasure, but it ended up coming out as a snarled moan.

He nearly flattened her when he went limp from the aftermath. Not that she’d complained, though it didn’t seem like she’d had any breath to complain with.

“That was,” he gasped out, “I _missed_ that.” He buried his face in her hair and took in their mixed scents. “Missed _you_.”

“Mm,” he felt more than saw her nod. “We should… Shower…”

Goku grunted in agreement. Now that the desperate edge to his desire had been sated, he was pretty sure they could take their time for the next round as well.

Fortunately it didn’t take long at all for him to completely recover. He easily managed to carry his wife to the shower. By the time he turned the water on, it was obvious he was ready for another round.

This time he didn’t even need to ask her if he could enter her. Without any prompting she pressed herself against him and lifted her leg around his waist. He took the hint and lifted her up, trapping her between his body and the wall. The quickly warming water cascaded around them as they rejoined their bodies.

Her ankles hooked around his back as they exchanged kisses; some of them were gentle, some with more teeth than anything else, but always they were full of love and desire for each other. All the while he rocked into her, savoring the feeling he was starting to think he’d never feel again.

Despite their mostly languid pace, it wasn’t long before both of them were shaking and clutching at each other as they neared their peaks. He swallowed her cries greedily as he worked to follow her, though admittedly it didn’t take much effort. Though entering her from behind always seem to allow him to go deeper and gave him easier access to her clit, having her like this – facing him- was his favorite position. Seeing her face as he pleased her, as she climaxed, being able to so easily kiss her… It was the _best_.

It was only after he was done that he noticed her eyes were closed and how worryingly limp his wife was.

“Chi-Chi?” He nuzzled her neck as a whine built up in the back of his throat. “Chi-Chi, what’s wrong?”

Thankfully she started to move before he could panic. “Nm. Goku?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I- I think that’s my limit though.” She couldn’t seem to keep her eyes open. “And I don’t want Gohan to wake up without me there, not right now.”

“Okay,” he gently kissed her forehead and moved so that she was directly under the water. He didn’t set her down though, it didn’t seem like she could stand on her own power at the moment. Goku didn’t mind, not when it meant he could hold her close.

He took his time gently and thoroughly cleaning her while she rested. Given that he was holding her up, some areas were trickier to wash than others but he managed. He’d started at her feet and by the time he’d gotten to her hair, Chi-Chi had recovered enough to stand on her own. That just meant he had both hands free to wash her hair with though, something he eagerly took advantage of.

Goku loved washing her hair and playing with it in general, not quite as much as he enjoyed burying his face in it, or having Chi-Chi play with and wash his own hair. But her hair was long and easy to grab and pull; someone could seriously hurt her if they got a hold of it- something he knew she was aware of- so the fact that she’d let him touch it so easily spoke volumes of how much she trusted him. It always made him feel special.

As he concentrated on meticulously cleaning her hair, Chi-Chi returned the favor. Not cleaning his hair, thankfully, but washing the rest of him. As much as he wanted it, her washing his hair right now would be far too distracting and make him way too eager to have sex with her again.

A coo escaped him as he noticed she was exploring and memorizing his body with her hands as much as she was cleaning him. On reflection of the past few moments, he hadn’t really let her do much other than touch his hair the first time. The second time was more mutual, but he’d still been in control when it came to the pace. Next time, he decided, would be her turn. The idea made him shiver with want. Though he did enjoy dominating her and focusing everything on making her feel good, there was something really appealing about relinquishing complete control of himself to her. That she would take all that time and energy just to make him- and sometimes _only_ him- feel good, just made his heart well up with so much love for her it’d feel like he’d burst.

It was only after he’d finished rinsing her hair that she started to kiss his neck and shoulders as her hands rubbed at his sides.

“Chi-Chi,” he rumbled out, hands mimicking hers, “you want to go again?” He’d have to clean between her legs again, but it wasn’t something he minded too much.

He almost whined when he felt her head shake, it turned into a startled sharp inhale of pleasure when she bit at his nipple though. “I think it would cause me to pass out for real if we do,” she murmured into his chest. Despite that, one of her hands wandered down to stroke his cock, already hard and waiting for her. “I still want to please you though.”

“You don’t ah!” She squeezed gently at his member and he couldn’t help but thrust into her hand. Words left him as her teeth and tongue teased at his nipples while her other hand snaked around to touch at his tail stub. It was too much, taking his breath away, making him feel so good it was hard to think. Yet it wasn’t enough to push him over the edge. She was very skilled at keeping him in that state, she always had been. He really wished she’d tell him how so he could do the same for her.

All he could do was cling to her. He wasn’t even coherent enough to pull her closer. Even if he was, he likely wouldn’t have been strong enough. Chi-Chi was always good at making him feel weak. He loved it though, as long as it was with her.

Goku wasn’t sure how long she kept him in that wonderful state of torture. He wasn’t actually even aware of anything other than her. His thoughts were a messy cacophony of ‘yours’ over and over again as he gave himself wholly to her. Just as, whenever she was under him, helpless to him, he couldn’t help but think ‘mine.’

Only when Chi-Chi decided he’d had enough did the hand on his dick start to move faster, and her other hand pressed a little bit harder into that sensitive spot on his back. Now it was his turn to muffle his voice with his hand as his release rapidly approached.

A sudden wailing cry shattered the bliss and caused his wife to pull away from him far too soon. Without a thought he pulled her back against him, shamelessly rutting against her hip.

“Wait, Gohan-”

“He’s fine, Chi-Chi, please, he’s fine I just need - _please_!” She was _his_ , she couldn’t just stop like that now when he wasn’t done!

She probably huffed in annoyance but he honestly couldn’t pay attention to anything other than the way his too hot, too hard cock felt against her wonderfully soft skin or the way her soaps and arousal teased his nose. Her hip was quickly replaced by the firm grip of her hand once again. Chi-Chi’s other hand sharply yanked at his hair, the slight pain making him see stars as it became too much for him.

Goku might have cried out, he might have growled or roared but honestly he couldn’t tell, he was too lost in the pleasure his wife had given him. He was aware enough, however to know that Chi-Chi didn’t linger.

By the time he recovered enough to whine and reach for her, Chi-Chi had quickly dried herself and had gotten dressed.

With a sharp click the door was shut leaving Goku alone in the shower, whining pitifully at her absence.


	8. Reconvene

8: Reconvene

While Chi-Chi had acknowledged that she was perhaps a little underweight, she hadn’t really thought about just how thin she’d gotten. At least, until she was wearing her own clothes again. They were significantly looser than they should be. No wonder Goku was so insistent she eat a lot.

However there wasn’t really any time to worry about that. Not with Gohan crying up a storm outside. Thankfully getting to him took no time at all and soon her poor baby was sniffling, hiccupping and whining in her arms. Her dad handed her a bottle that he’d apparently been trying, and failing, to distract her son with, but she asked that he just stick it in the fridge. Gohan didn’t look in the mood for food.

Actually it looked like he wasn’t in the mood for anything that didn’t involve her holding him. Chi-Chi was willing to bet that he’d probably start screaming again if it looked like she’d hand him off to anyone else. Especially with the death grip he had on her shirt and arm. Now that her son was relatively calm, Chi-Chi took the opportunity to sit down on a free lounge chair. Between telling them what’d happened, reacquainting herself with her husband, rapidly getting dressed and dashing through the house, Chi-Chi was ready for a break. It was honestly frustrating how weak she’d become, especially without the adrenaline and fear for Gohan pushing her on.

Like with her weight though, the only way to fix it was with time. As she relaxed into the chair, cooing and humming to sooth her son, Chi-Chi glanced around the beach.

Nothing much had changed in the last half hour or so since she’d been out there; Krillin and Yamcha were sparring some distance away, though for some reason both of them refused to look in her direction. Her dad and master Roshi went inside, maybe to get started on lunch or perhaps to talk in private. Chi-Chi didn’t know, she didn’t really care all that much either. As much as she had missed her father, being around him and so many other people for even the short amount of time before had been tiring. She was just glad it wasn’t like that with Goku.

Bulma on the other hand, had wandered over to her, looking kind of nervous. “Hey.”

Chi-Chi smiled shyly in return. “Hi,” truth be told, she wasn’t sure what to make of Goku’s oldest friend. Her husband had always spoken highly of her and between their history together, her well-endowed body, her intelligence, and her wealth; Chi-Chi couldn’t help but feel jealous and inadequate compared to the heiress of Capsule Corp.

“Looks like you have your hands full.”

“Yeah,” she couldn’t help but smile down at Gohan. The boy had started whining again and had tightened his grip on her when Bulma approached. Chi-Chi rubbed his back in assurance, she didn’t want to stress him out anymore right now.

“Would you mind if I comb your hair? It’s an absolute mess right now.”

She tried running a hand through her hair. She hit a snag almost immediately. Between her quick attempt at drying, getting it washed and the state it had been in beforehand, Chi-Chi didn’t want to know how bad it looked. With a huff, she returned the hand to Gohan’s back. “Please, that’d be great. I can’t actually remember the last time I brushed it.”

“I can tell.” The older woman pulled out a comb from her pocket and with a bit of maneuvering slipped behind Chi-Chi. Chi-Chi herself scooted to the end of the chair so that Bulma could arrange herself comfortably behind her.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes with her cooing and chirping at her son and Bulma delicately picking the knots in her hair apart. Chi-Chi was just starting to wonder why Goku was taking so long to finish his shower when Bulma spoke up.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hm? For what?” She couldn’t recall actually speaking to Bulma before now, nor could she recall anything that would require the heiress to apologize.

“I wouldn’t let Goku use the Dragon Balls to get you back.”

“The Dragon? Oh, right, they grant wishes, don’t they?” Honestly she hadn’t thought about those orbs. Not that she doubted what Goku had told her about them, but they sounded far too good to be true. Besides, it wasn’t like they would have done her any good if she’d been aware of them; she hadn’t the time or energy to do anything other than take care of Gohan and keep him safe.

Bulma made a noise of agreement. “Considering you’d fought just before vanishing… I thought you’d been, I don’t know, disillusioned with your marriage or something and left. Then when Goku wanted to wish you back… I thought he’d just get hurt.”

Chi-Chi was honestly a little angry and a little hurt at that. Did Goku’s friends really think so little of her? Did _he_? His friends didn’t know her very well, if at all, so that was at least a little understandable. But Goku? Had he given up? Had he listened to their thoughts on what she did, regardless of what he knew of her? The idea left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Unintentionally, Bulma relieved her worries before she could wallow in them. “He never stopped asking for them though, or looking for you. He always insisted that you wouldn’t stay away willingly.” Her voice went quiet as she continued to run the comb through Chi-Chi’s hair. “We –I- didn’t believe him though.”

Chi-Chi wasn’t sure how to feel about this apology and explanation now. On one hand, she could easily see how they could have come to that conclusion and she understood the desire to keep Goku from getting heartbroken. On the other hand it _hurt_ knowing that people so important to Goku thought that way about her, that they probably had thought that way for over a year. “Why didn’t you believe him?” That was another thing that bothered her. Goku knew her the best out of all of them, save perhaps for her dad, why didn’t his friends listen to him?

“Goku can be a bit naïve at times.” Chi-Chi bit back a snort. She wouldn’t call him naïve, ignorant sometimes, but not naïve. “And, you’ve saw it, he gave someone like Piccolo Jr. a second chance. Why wouldn’t we think that he’s just giving you another chance?”

The circumstances around him sparing Piccolo Jr. were far more than him just giving the demon spawn a second chance. Chi-Chi knew that Bulma knew that. She didn’t really want to start an argument on why it wasn’t the same thing, though it _really_ wasn’t, but she couldn’t help but keep questioning the older woman. “Did you talk to Goku about this?” She couldn’t quite keep the tartness out of her voice.

“Several times,” Bulma sighed, “I know we messed up, I know we should have trusted him. But we didn’t and you’re the one who had to suffer for it. I was the one who was the most convinced nothing good could come of you coming back and for that I’m sorry.”

They fell into silence once again. Chi-Chi didn’t know how to respond, but it sounded like Bulma should be apologizing to both her and Goku rather than just her. She wished Bulma was apologizing to the both of them right now; Goku knew the other woman better and would know how sincere she was being.

Before she could come up with an answer though Goku finally appeared. She smiled and waved at him, though they weren’t that far away from each other. He waved back though an odd expression had briefly crossed his face. Was that jealousy? Betrayal? It’d honestly vanished too quickly for Chi-Chi to read it. Though she couldn’t fathom why he’d feel that way, considering what they’d done not even half an hour ago. Then again, despite how much he enjoyed having sex, his favorite part was cuddling afterwards and Chi-Chi hadn’t stuck around for that.

However, Gohan had been crying and Gohan would _always_ come first. She felt guilty enough lingering long enough to satisfy Goku beforehand while her baby had been crying out for her. A part of her really wanted to be angry at her husband for that, but he still had to get used to having a baby around. He and Gohan had only known each other for less than a day, after all. Still, she’d probably have to have a talk with him about that at some point.

Rather than going to her, he went and joined his friends sparing. It made sense, she supposed, other than her nap that morning, he’d been with her all day. Even then, he’d had to take care of Gohan. A part of her was actually glad she could finish her talk with Bulma in relative privacy.

“I’m not sure if I can forgive you,” her voice was low as she honestly didn’t want the others to hear. “Right now everything’s just a little too much.”

“Fair enough.”

“And I think you should apologize to Goku too, if you haven’t already.”

Bulma let out a gusty sigh, “yeah, I really should.”

There was really nothing more Chi-Chi could think of to say, Bulma apparently felt the same way, as they lapsed into silence once again. By the time Bulma finished with her hair, Gohan had calmed down enough to want food and some delicious smells were starting to waft out from the house.

Now was a good time to feed her son, she decided, so Chi-Chi quietly thanked Bulma for helping with her hair and went inside to get food for Gohan. She was only half surprised when Goku broke off his sparring session with his other friends and joined her. It made her heart flutter; he’d never passed up a chance for training before.

A quick word had them splitting up, with Goku going to the kitchen to make the bottles and Chi-Chi heading upstairs to start feeding Gohan, who still very much did not want to be separated from her.

By the time she’d gotten settled, her husband returned and curled up next to her, one arm holding food for their son and the other balancing a bowl of soup and a couple of bread rolls. Given the size, it was clearly meant for her. The food, however, was quickly set aside so he could start playing with her hair.

She chuckled at that. “Careful, you’ll get it all tangled up.” Her tone was light and joking, Goku was always good with regards to her hair. Surprisingly so at times.

He huffed in response, “you know I’ll never do that. Besides, Bulma didn’t do it right.”

“I don’t think there’s a wrong way to comb hair, Goku.”

“There is,” came the whined response. “And she did it _wrong_ , your hair’ll get all weird when it dries.”

“Hmm,” She leaned into his hands as they brushed her neck and scalp. Even if she couldn’t tell any difference between Bulma’s work and what she normally did with her hair, she did enjoy the feeling of her husband playing with it. “Do I ever get your hair wrong?” Even if she wasn’t sure what it meant to get hair wrong, it seemed to matter to Goku quite a bit. If she had, though, he’d never complained about it. Was it because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings?

A gentle tug had her looking him in the eye. “ _You_ can’t get it wrong, Chi-Chi. I love it when you touch my hair.” She wasn’t sure if it was the angle or the intensity in his words that made her blush. It may even have been what he said that affected her. Goku may not act like it, but there were times when he was extremely picky about his hair, it was especially bad when other people had touched it. To hear him say something like that made her heart flutter.

The angle of her head was, unfortunately, too awkward for them to kiss. She did, however, snuggle closer to him. She also refocused on her son to hide the red in her face. Not that it did much good to hide it, considering how close they were.

Goku just chuckled and cooed, burying his face in her hair.

They fell into a comfortable silence while Gohan ate before Goku’s voice, soft and rough with a purr broke it. “Your dad and master Roshi want to talk after lunch.”

“Bout what?”

“Taking care of those guys that chased you.” Chi-Chi froze. She’d forgotten about them, as impossible as it seemed. “Chi-Chi?”

“I… I forgot about them.” Saying it out loud made it sound even worse. “Well, I don’t think I could forget about them, but they didn’t… I’m safe, Gohan’s safe and it didn’t seem to matter… But they’re right. We do need to do something about them.” Or else the next time she was alone for five minutes she’d probably have a panic attack.

He kissed the back of her head. “If you don’t want to, we can wait. Either way, I won’t let them touch you.”

“I know. But you can’t stay with me all the time.”

“Sure I can.”

She huffed. How can he say such sweet things so easily? “It wouldn’t be fair to you. And I’m more worried about them taking Gohan anyway.”

“They won’t lay a hand on either one of you, I promise.”

Chi-Chi sighed and leaned back against him, closing her eyes and basking in his and Gohan’s presence. That answer was about what she’d expected, really. “Goku?”

“Hm?”

“You can sense ki, right?” He tensed slightly, if she hadn’t been so close she might not have noticed. His nod was more obvious. “How close are they?”

“… Not that close. It feels kind of like they’re circling.”

She sighed and it felt like all her energy left her with that breath. “I guess it’s a good thing we could find them.” It didn’t feel like a good thing. Even with Goku right there, knowing that they were out there waiting for her left her feeling unsafe and worried.

Chi-Chi did her best to push those feelings aside as Gohan finished eating from her. A problem arouse, however, when she went to hand him to Goku so that she could get started on her meal while he finished his. Gohan was still very much not ready to stop being held by her. He clung and whined at her when she tried to give him to his father. Whenever Goku tried to take him, Gohan would make a strange heavy breathing sound. Chi-Chi was starting to worry they were giving her son a panic attack.

“Gohan, stop that!” Goku made a sound somewhere between a click and a cluck, it was remarkably similar to the noise Gohan had made earlier; had he learned that from Goku? “Chi-Chi,” her husband whined, “he keeps hissing at me.”

“He’s hissing?” She’d never heard either one of them hiss before. It didn’t sound anything like a snake hiss, maybe it was a little cat-like?

“Yeah. It’s not very nice of him to hiss like that though.”

“I see.” Sort of. Hissing at people did sound rude, but he was just a baby and didn’t know any better. She cooed at him some, “what’s wrong? You liked being with your daddy before.”

“Aw, don’t make that sound, it’ll confuse him, you kind of have to,” he made the clicking noise again. “It’s sort of… A gentle scold I guess? I did it when he grabbed Puar’s tail. He listened then.”

Chi-Chi wasn’t sure she should scold him when all Gohan wanted to do was stay in her arms. However, she supposed it couldn’t hurt to start teaching him some manners now. So when Gohan started hissing again, she did her best to mimic that clicking-clucking sound.

She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing, his look of betrayal was the same as Goku’s had been at breakfast time. “I’m sorry baby, mommy will hold you when she’s done eating, okay?” As soon as he was in Goku’s arms, she cooed at him again. “I’m staying right here, alright?”

He grabbed at her fingers and whined, and Chi-Chi almost took him back right then. Goku shook his head at her, gently getting their son to release her. “Go on and eat, I’ve got this.” He picked up one of the bottles and tried to put it into their son’s mouth. He kept turning away though, at least until Chi-Chi moved close enough so that her son could, and did, wrap his tail around her arm. Only with that contact did Gohan began eating again.

She smiled a little at that as she picked up the bowl of soup and some bread. Despite her smile though, the reminder that she and her son weren’t completely safe remained in the forefront of her thoughts. Chi-Chi couldn’t help but worry that her feelings of safety and comfort were just an illusion, and that something soon will happen to destroy it.

That feeling persisted, despite her best efforts, long after she’d finished her lunch and had gathered with the others on the beach. Gohan was comfortably back in her arms and Goku was just finishing off his own lunch, as well as any leftovers that people hadn’t wanted to eat, when Bulma decided to take charge and start.

“Okay, so we know that leaving those guys that kidnapped Chi-Chi alone is a bad idea. What are we going to do about it?”

“Well,” Krillin began, “we could always beat them up and leave them for the police, or even the world army?”

Her father made a noise of disagreement. “Sometimes the only way to make sure something doesn’t happen again is to eliminate the threat completely.” If it wasn’t rude, Chi-Chi would’ve rolled her eyes at that. Why was his first reaction always murder? It was a little disconcerting that Goku looked like he was seriously considering it though.

In all honesty, she couldn’t say that the idea of those people being gone permanently didn’t appeal to her. Chi-Chi was just really tired of seeing her dad kill people, she had been since she was 10, and she didn’t like the idea of Goku killing people either. She didn’t even know if he could kill anyone. She never wanted to find out either.

Master Roshi apparently agreed with her initial reaction to her dad’s response though, if the noise of despair he made was any indication. “I know I didn’t train you to kill so easily. But you do have a point, sometimes there’s no other option, and this may be one of them.”

“What do you think, Chi-Chi?” Yamcha asked, “lock them up or kill them?” He said those options so easily and she was reminded that he had been a bandit not unlike her father. Krillin and Bulma were the only other ones who looked bothered by the idea of killing the people who’d kidnapped her.

“I… I don’t know. A part of me doesn’t want anyone to die, but…” She looked at her son, letting him play with her fingers. The idea that someone could come and just take him away, that she’d be unable to stop it… She couldn’t bear it. As much as she didn’t like the idea of even suggesting that Goku kill someone, Gohan was far too important to risk. “Even if they were arrested, I don’t think I’d feel safe. I’d be scared they’d escape.”

Heck, she didn’t know what the process for being arrested _was_ , what jail was supposed to be like or anything other than that the police would get involved. Chi-Chi didn’t even know if they _would_ be arrested. Her dad had killed people, everyone knew that, and no one had even attempted to try and arrest him. Her dad’s village even had a small police force in it and still no one said anything about it to her father.  
  


“Okay, I guess that’s that settled,” Yamcha interrupted her thoughts. “How are we going to go about doing it? Fly up to them and crash their car?”

“I don’t know,” Goku started, staring at a point over the house. “I think they’re a little too close right now.”

The martial artists that could sense ki all frowned, staring in the same direction he was. Krillin was the only one who spoke up though. “Yeah, you’ve got a point. We should probably lure them a bit farther away.”

“I could transform into Chi-Chi!” Yamcha’s cat friend spoke up. “If they see me leaving the island like that, they’ll probably follow.”

“Good thinking Puar.” Bulma started, “but I think we can add a few more details.” The group subtly shifted closer together as they began planning in earnest.


	9. Reflection

They’d spent pretty much the entire rest of the day planning and going over things along with some light training. Somehow during all this they decided to wait a day before fighting, something Goku was actually kind of grateful for. He still didn’t want to leave Chi-Chi’s side right now and he was kind of tired from the lack of sleep he’d gotten the night before. He didn’t want to be at anything less than his best when dealing with the people who’d tried to take his wife away.

The rest of the day went by quickly after that. Bulma had taken him aside and apologized for not listening to him about Chi-Chi. Goku hadn’t been sure how to deal with that. It still hurt that his oldest friend wouldn’t listen to him and the darker part of his instincts still insisted it’d been on purpose to get his wife out of the way. He ended up forgiving her anyway, because she seemed upset about it.

The rest of the time he spent with his wife and son. A part of him wanted to hide them away upstairs and relax with just the three of them together, but Chi-Chi apparently got over her avoiding people thing, or she forced herself to get over it, and seemed content with hanging out at the beach and letting people coo over their son. As much as he’d rather it be just him, her and Gohan, it did make it easier to give Chi-Chi more food more often. Every time he brought her more, she’d just roll her eyes and either eat it or set it aside until she felt ready to eat it.

Despite having to share Chi-Chi and Gohan with the rest of his friends, Goku still had a fun day. His night was a little soured, though, by the fact that it wouldn’t be just the three of them in the upstairs room. They’d have to share it with Bulma, Yamcha and Puar. It wasn’t actually that bad, but he wanted a little time with just Chi-Chi while Gohan was asleep. Well, maybe if they were extra quiet?

With that thought in mind, Goku snuggled a little closer to his wife and pulled her a bit closer to himself. He buried his face in her hair again and one of his hands reached down to rest on her thigh. It wasn’t that he wanted to have sex with her right now; though he wouldn’t object to it, that need wasn’t nearly as strong as it was before, now that they smelled more like each other. But he wanted to be as close to her as possible, he wanted to feel as much of her as he could. He also wanted to talk with her. Not that they hadn’t been talking all day, but Goku couldn’t get enough of hearing her voice.

His movements were enough to wake her up. A part of Goku felt a little guilty about that, despite how little they did today, Chi-Chi still looked really tired by the time she and Gohan had gotten settled in for bed.

“Mn? Goku? What’s wrong?” Her voice was slightly slurred with sleep, but Goku wasn’t too bothered by that, he had just woken her up after all.

“Nothing,” his voice was low enough so that none of the others in the room could hear; he didn’t want them waking up. But Chi-Chi could hear him just fine, considering his mouth was right next to her ear. “I just wanted to be closer to you. You left too soon after our shower.” It’d been hours ago, but that still bothered him a little bit.

Cuddling after sex was the best part about having sex, in his opinion. There hadn’t really been many opportunities to cuddle with her afterwards either, he’d been right in thinking that her father would hover and keep him from having alone time with her. Not that he could blame the Ox King, but still.

She huffed in response, her words were clearer now that she was awake. Though she kept herself just as quiet as he did, his sharper hearing easily picked up her voice. “Gohan was crying, I had to get to him. And you’re lucky I stayed for as long as I did.”

“Hm, did you really think, between my friends and your dad that he’d be in any danger?”

“No, it’s just… Gohan comes first. Before anyone or anything else. Even before you.”

Goku inhaled sharply at that. A part of him wondered if he should feel disappointed he was no longer her top priority, but hearing her say that, hearing her put their son at the top of the list, it made him so happy he couldn’t even start to find words for it. He didn’t even know _why_ hearing her say that made him so happy; it was _Chi-Chi_ , of course she’d give everything for their child, even if it was his own place in her heart, she never loved anyone or anything by halves.

“Goku,” her voice was soft, hesitant, there was a bit of an apology in it as well, but absolutely no regret for what she’d just said.

“That’s- you- I- I’m glad. To hear you say that. You’re a good mom.”

She gave a small chuckle and reached back to ruffle his hair. “Thanks,” whatever she was going to say next was interrupted by a yawn.

He nuzzled under her ear. “You should go back to sleep. Sorry for waking you.”

“Mn, it’s fine,” but she settled back down for sleep regardless. “You’ll be a great dad too.”

Goku didn’t answer her, she was already asleep again but he also didn’t think he could make a noise beyond the lump of emotion that suddenly appeared in his throat. She thought he’d be a great dad! He’d only helped to take care of Gohan for a day and she already thought he’d be a great dad!

Part of him was really glad she was asleep again, and facing away from him as well, his face was so red he was surprised she couldn’t feel the heat from it. However, doubt came just as fast as the happiness did, but it lingered for far longer. Chi-Chi was willing, without hesitation, to put Gohan before him. Goku was not nearly confident enough to say he could do the same with regards to Chi-Chi.

If it were to come down to Gohan and himself? Like with Chi-Chi, there was no question about who he’d put first. Even between himself and Chi-Chi, there was only one answer. But to choose between his son and his wife?

His head said to pick Gohan. He was so small and helpless, if anything bad happened there was no way he’d survive. It’s what Chi-Chi would want him to pick as well.

But his heart couldn’t tolerate that. If this past year had taught him anything it was that he didn’t like it when Chi-Chi wasn’t with him, that he didn’t want to live in a world where Chi-Chi wasn’t there for him. Besides- and this was a _horrible_ thought but one he couldn’t help but think- he and Chi-Chi could always have more kids, but there was only one Chi-Chi.

If he couldn’t say with complete confidence he’d put Gohan over Chi-Chi, did that make him a bad dad? He didn’t think he could stand being a bad dad! Gohan didn’t deserve a bad dad! And it’d mean Chi-Chi made a terrible choice when marrying and starting a family with him and thinking about that just about broke his heart.

Goku pushed those thoughts away as best he could. If he chose her over their son, Chi-Chi would _never_ forgive him, even if Gohan was wished back with the Dragon Balls. He didn’t think he would forgive himself either, to be honest. However, even with that certainty in mind, he still wasn’t sure if he would save their son over his wife. Maybe in a year or so he could say for certain that wouldn’t be the case, but for now? At best he could say he didn’t know which one he’d choose.

Maybe he wouldn’t have to though. Reluctantly he untangled himself from his wife and sat up to think and meditate; if he stayed lying down, he’d just fall asleep. The only way, for now, he could think of why he’d have to choose between Chi-Chi and Gohan would be in the off chance they’d be separated. Considering Gohan couldn’t even crawl he couldn’t imagine that happening anytime soon, but maybe in the future…

His mind went to one of his friends, Tien Shinhan was one of the strongest fighters Goku had had to fight. So far he’d only been surpassed by both King Piccolo and Piccolo Jr. Goku however had never understood why, during the semifinals of the last tournament, he’d diminished himself by dividing his power up into four bodies. Why attack from four sides when you could give a stronger blow from one?

Right now though, when he was thinking about having to save two people at once should they be in danger? Being in more than one place at the same time sounded like a really good idea. He wouldn’t be able to practice it yet- it was too late at night right now and they were going to start the plan early tomorrow- but he doubted he’d need to do that move so soon.

Still, while the idea was fresh in his head, Goku couldn’t help but sink deeper into his meditation. He brought up any and all memories he could of Tien using that technique. What he did to activate it, how his ki had felt, even what he’d smelt like when using it, though that part wasn’t nearly as helpful as the others.

Goku wasn’t sure how long he meditated for, but eventually he started yawning way too much to keep concentrating on his memories of the multi-form technique, not that there had been very many, having only seen it once before. He needed to rest up for the plan tomorrow and Goku doubted he’d get any further just thinking about it anyway. Regardless, he was confident he had the general idea down now. All he had to do was practice.

He smiled to himself as he once more buried his face into his wife’s hair and tangled his limbs around hers. It was at times like this he wished he still had his tail, if only for one more limb to wrap around his wife.

It was strange and a little frustrating learning a technique just based off of his memories like that. But it was also kind of challenging and even a little bit fun. A part of him was a little sad he had to wait a bit before trying it out to see if he was right. But for the most part he was fine with it, especially if it meant he didn’t have to worry about Chi-Chi and Gohan’s safety while doing it.

Besides, after tomorrow he didn’t doubt there’d be plenty of time for him to figure out Tien’s technique and probably more uses for it than just for fighting. He fell asleep, dreaming of his pretty wife trapped between two of himself.


	10. 10: Red Ribbon

Morning came too soon for Chi-Chi’s liking. Especially when her alarm clock was a hungry Gohan and a stinky diaper. Goku apparently didn’t like it either, given the sleepy way he whined and tried to pull her away from their son. She honestly couldn’t blame him for that, considering how more sensitive his nose was compared to hers. Still, it was more of a struggle than she thought it should be for her to wiggle out of his grasp to take care of their son. It took petting his hair a bit for him to relax enough to let her go completely.

Gohan all the while didn’t make a sound much louder than a soft whimper. It probably wasn’t a good thing how quiet he was with his distress, when she was nearby at least. Even if it was convenient enough that they didn’t disturb the other people sleeping in the room. Quietly she gathered the things she’d need to change him and crept downstairs.

Unlike yesterday she was the first one up, though that didn’t surprise her at all. Babies didn’t care about how much sleep others had gotten, she was just glad Gohan was already sleeping through the night, not that that had really affected her sleep cycle.

She wanted to go upstairs before she started breast feeding Gohan as she’d heard far too many stories of master Roshi to feel comfortable doing it in the area he was in. However before then she decided to make up some more bottles for him now since she was already downstairs.

Chi-Chi hadn’t expected Goku to meet her at the stairs, nor had she expected him to look so frightened. As soon as he saw her, Chi-Chi was pulled into a tight desperate hug. Despite that, he was careful enough of Gohan that their son didn’t complain.

“You weren’t there,” he muttered softly into her ear. “I woke up and _you weren’t there_.”

As much as she wanted to hug him back, her hands were full. All she could do was kiss his neck. “I’m here. I’m sorry you had to wake up without me, but I’m here now.”

He nodded and let out a shaky breath before pulling away. He smiled brightly and scratched the back of his head. “Sorry, yesterday felt kind of like a dream, I didn’t even think to sense for your ki.” He gave a light laugh, as if to banish the fear he must have felt when he’d woken up without her, but Chi-Chi could see how tight his smile and shoulders were. “That was kind of silly of me, wasn’t it?”

She kissed him again. “It’s not silly at all,” she left another kiss along his jaw, “and I’m sorry for scaring you.”

This time he kissed her lips. “Forgiven. You’re heading back upstairs, right? Can I carry you?”

She half wanted to refuse because she could walk just fine. However, there was still some tension left in his shoulders so she smiled and nodded. Despite her reassurances he was still a little shaken up from that scare. If carrying her was what it took to reassure him that she was real and she wasn’t going anywhere without him? Well, her pride wasn’t worth his peace of mind.

Considering how much brighter his smile became when he had her in his arms, Chi-Chi had absolutely made the right decision.

On the way up the stairs, he started cooing and chirping at Gohan, but their son was more interested in the prospect of food than he was in his father. Chi-Chi wasn’t at all surprised at that. Neither was Goku though he played it up, whining and pouting at her while their son fed.

Conscious of the other people sleeping in the room the two of them talked quietly, mostly about the things Goku did while she was gone. It wasn’t much, not compared to the kind of stuff he’d done when he was younger. Goku had quietly admitted that he hadn’t felt like having adventures while she’d been gone. The most shocking this was when he stated he’d turned down a fight because he thought he was close to finding her. He hadn’t been, but considering how much he loved fighting, that was tantamount to him shouting his undying love for her to the world.

Unfortunately it didn’t take very long for Yamcha to get up, unintentionally ruining their quiet family moment. Granted, clearly he wasn’t a morning person if the way he shuffled past them without a word was any indication. But all the same, Chi-Chi was glad she’d finished breastfeeding Gohan. She and Goku were also able to exchange a few more kisses before his fellow turtle student returned.

Despite the fact that she was done breastfeeding Gohan and all covered up, when Yamcha returned he took one look at her before quickly turning away with a red face. Looking back, he’d avoided looking at her for nearly the entirety of yesterday. After he’d gone back down, presumably to make breakfast, she gave her husband a questioning look.

“Did I do something? Your friend won’t look at me.”

He just responded with a chuckle. “Yeah, Yamcha’s kind of weird like that. Don’t worry, he did the same for Bulma when they first met and he still does that for Launch too.”

“Hmm,” it sounded weird, but if Goku thought it was normal than it probably was. “Alright. Think we should join him downstairs? I don’t want to wake up Bulma or Puar.’

Goku shrugged, “Bulma’s a pretty heavy sleeper, but we can go down if you want.”

Chi-Chi gave him a small kiss. “I’d like that,” then she handed Gohan to his father. Like with yesterday morning, he was fine with that and Goku chirped at him happily which Gohan responded to. The sight made her smile. “Maybe I’ll help make breakfast,” she mused as they made their way downstairs.

Goku perked up at that. “That sounds great, it’s been too long since I’ve had your cooking.”

It was shockingly easy to get back into the routine of cooking for her husband. Yamcha was grateful for the help as well. Though he was good at it, apparently he disliked cooking. It wasn’t long before the smells of food woke up everyone else.

Much to her annoyance, her father kicked her out of the kitchen as soon as he was awake enough to take over making the meal. Goku just chuckled at that and made a point of eating all of the stuff she’d managed to cook.

It did mean that she wasn’t the last to sit down and eat, though she did end up being the last to finish her meal. Chi-Chi liked to think she’d managed to eat a little more than she had managed yesterday, though it didn’t really look like it. Still she lingered over her meal, perhaps unnecessarily, but in all honesty she wanted to put off the moment Goku would leave for as long as possible.

They were starting the plan after everyone finished eating, after all. Although it was necessary for her safety and peace of mind, the fact that it involved Goku leaving the house, leaving her, made her stomach twist in knots. She forced herself to finish eating. This was for Gohan, for his future safety.

Despite how she lingered, soon enough it was time for them to start the plan. As far as plans went, it was a fairly simple one. Her father and Puar, transformed as her, and a fake bundled up baby would get into his air car and go ‘home.’ After, when they were sure Chi-Chi’s kidnappers were tailing them, Goku and his two male friends would follow. Leaving her and Gohan in the house with just Bulma and master Roshi.

Not to insult the old master, but it didn’t feel like nearly enough. Not after spending yesterday feeling safe thanks to Goku’s presence. Granted, she didn’t think she’d feel as safe without Goku around even if everyone but Goku stayed with her. She could tell Goku was reluctant about that part of the plan as well, given the way he kept cuddling close to her and Gohan. However, he didn’t object to it.

It took a couple tries for Puar to get her form exactly right, the first time had been way too short and the second far too skinny, but they and her father were soon setting off for the first stage of the plan. Chi-Chi reluctantly took Gohan back so that Goku could focus on the enemy ki. It didn’t take long for the three fighters to nod to each other and say their goodbyes. Well, not for Krillin at least. Yamcha and Bulma were remarkably passionate considering they weren’t alone in the room.

Chi-Chi herself couldn’t help but give her husband a peck on the cheek. “Stay safe.”

She also couldn’t stop blushing when he kissed her back, “I’ll come back soon, then we can all go home. I promise.”

As much as she wanted to kiss him again, she settled for just nodding. Then with one last reassuring smile he and the others left, taking the feeling of safety and security with them.

Because of their plan, Chi-Chi didn’t want to risk somehow being spotted, so she could only watch them leave from the door, unlike Bulma and Roshi who’d gone out to the beach to see them off.

With a sigh she went to change Gohan’s diaper partially because he needed it, but mostly because it gave her something to do. Then she got a blanket and some toys out for Gohan to play with, setting him up between the couch and the TV so that she wouldn’t be isolated from the rest of the house. He hadn’t really had time or space to play while they’d been running; nor had they really been able to get very many baby safe toys. Her father, luckily, had brought some with him.

It warmed her heart to see her son so enthusiastically explore a bright plastic ring of keys.

Master Roshi and Bulma had come in while she was setting up Gohan’s little play area. The elder man went upstairs, probably to put things back to where they’d been before she’d arrived. Bulma on the other hand settled onto the couch as well, though she was some distance away from her. The other woman looked strangely nervous for some reason.

It wasn’t until sometime later, when Gohan had gotten tired of playing and demanded to be held that Bulma started to speak.

“So, uh, looks like Gohan inherited Goku’s tail.”

She had to smile at that as she picked up and cuddled her son. The tail in question automatically wrapped itself around her arm. “Yeah, I was a little surprised at it; I’d almost forgotten Goku had had a tail. The doctors were shocked too.”

“I’ll bet,” Bulma muttered. “Listen, about that tail, there’s something you need to know.”

Chi-Chi froze before she could question the other woman and before Bulma could continue. She wasn’t sure what set off her instincts, just that she found herself pulling Bulma off the couch and away from the door. The older woman tried to object but a thump and sizzling noise cut her off as the door began to dissolve.

“Shit,” the scientist hissed, “that’s the only door.”

“Windows, the bathroom’s in the back and it has windows we can get out of.” Almost as if they heard her, the sound of glass shattering cut through the house. Gohan began whimpering.

“Upstairs!”

“No! We’ll be trapped.”

“Roshi’s up there.”

“And if they destroy the stairs? We might be able to handle the fall but Gohan _can’t_!” By now she’d pulled Bulma into the corner furthest away from the front door and the bathroom, just in time for a large man to leave the room, cutting them off from the stairs.

He had an acidic green tank strapped to his back and a connected matching gun aimed at them, slapped on the side of both the tank and the gun was that symbol that she’d learned to fear. His smile was crooked and full of too sharp teeth. “Well, well little mouse. Looks like you’ve finally run out of places to go.”

Gohan started crying in earnest when Chi-Chi gave him to Bulma. She may not be in the best condition and she may be out of practice, but she could still fight! Especially if she didn’t have to worry about keeping Gohan safe in her arms.

“Wait, that’s! You’re part of the Red Ribbon Army? But they were destroyed years ago!” Bulma cried out, scooting further back into the corner while cradling Gohan close. “Goku-”

“Diminished, not destroyed little lady. With enough powerful fighters on our side, we can rebuild and reshape the world into the vision our great leader, the late General Red, wanted!” With a twitch and a click his gun started to whine and the tank on his back began bubbling. The weapon was aimed over Chi-Chi’s shoulder, at Bulma and Gohan. “Unfortunately for you, we only need _her_ as a hostage.”

Without thinking Chi-Chi pushed Bulma to the ground and did her best to shield the other woman and her son with her body. There was an ear splitting crunch and the floor shook as the sound of sizzling once more reached her ears, but the expected burning pain didn’t happen.

Risking a glance behind her, Chi-Chi’s vision was for the most part blocked by a giant turtle shell partially embedded in the floor. A look to the side showed master Roshi, shelless, standing at the base of the stairs looking livid.

“Get out!” He snarled.


	11. 11: Risk

Goku was on edge. Their plan so far seemed to be working well, but Goku couldn’t help but think that something was wrong. Neither of his friends seemed to notice. If he was being honest, however, there wasn’t actually anything _to_ notice. Nothing seemed to be wrong.

He shrugged it off as his nerves, he hadn’t liked the part of the plan that involved leaving Chi-Chi’s side. However as much as he’d rather stay with her and get to know his son better, he wanted to personally make sure any threat to them was ended.

He probably wouldn’t be as twitchy if he was on the Nimbus, there was something about being on the cloud that always made him feel a bit more secure and sure of himself that flying in a car never did. Also using the Nimbus meant he could have stayed with Chi-Chi for a little bit longer before having to follow after the Ox King. However they’d agreed it’d be better to stick together until they were able to confront Chi-Chi’s kidnappers.

There wasn’t anything for him to do at the moment, other than worry about that bad feeling and wait until Krillin or Yamcha decided they were in a good spot to start attacking. A part of that feeling might be because they were going to ambush the other air car and that felt wrong to Goku, but none of them had had any other ideas about how to make them land so they could fight.

It felt like forever before Krillin spoke up. “Hey, look at that symbol on the wing,” Goku leaned forward. That must have been the thing Chi-Chi had talked about yesterday. He couldn’t help but feel like he’d seen it before. Thankfully Krillin continued, “isn’t that what the Red Ribbon Army used?”

“Yeah, it looks like it, but didn’t Goku take care of them years ago?”

He scratched his head as he tried to remember. “I think so? Were they the ones who killed Upa’s dad for the Dragon Balls?”

Krillin nodded, “yeah, looks like they’re still around.”

“But why would they kidnap Chi-Chi?”

Yamcha shrugged, “revenge maybe?”

That idea didn’t sit well with Goku. The thought that the pain and panic his wife had gone through was his fault made his heart hurt with guilt. A part of him knew there was nothing he could have done to prevent or expect anything like this to happen, but that did little to diminish his guilt.

Goku was jarred out of his thoughts when Yamcha cursed and Krillin gasped. He had just enough time to notice that the car they’d been following had turned around before it shot at them.

Thankfully they’d been able to escape from the car before it sunk beneath the waves, what was even better was the small island nearby that they’d been able to get to. The car they’d been chasing landed not far from them and the five people Goku had sensed piled out. Most of them were large and bulky and although they looked strong their movements were too stiff and rigid for them to be actual fighters.

Keeping in mind what Chi-Chi said about the guns they had, Goku noticed that three of them had the green guns while only one had a purple one. The last one was far smaller and skinnier than the others. He wore green gloves, had a funny green hat and apparently couldn’t find half of his glasses, considering there was a lens over only one of his eyes. Goku couldn’t help but notice how friendly and amused his eyes were.

Goku and his friends were ready to spring into action, before the gloved man began clapping.

“Impressive that you managed to survive. Not many could say the same.” Goku didn’t think it was that impressive, having survived similar things when he was younger. Krillin and Yamcha didn’t look like they’d had to try hard to get out safely either. “All the more reason as to why it is imperative that you join us.”

Krillin and Yamcha made noises that sounded as confused as Goku felt. “Join you? What do you mean?”

“I mean with someone as strong as you on our side, nothing will stand in the way of the Red Ribbon Army!” As he spoke the other four began to shift, trying to subtly surround the three of them.

“Why would you want to recruit Goku?” Krillin asked as he and Yamcha began gathering energy.

“His power, why else. His performance at the 23rd World Martial Arts tournament was exemplary. If we could harness that for ourselves the Red Ribbon Army would be unstoppable!”

“You _kidnapped_ Chi-Chi because you wanted me to _help_ you?” Goku couldn’t help but snarl. He wouldn’t have helped them anyway, but the knowledge that they’d hurt his wife just made him all the more resistant to the idea.

The man waved a hand. “Simply insurance. Unfortunately many are far too simpleminded to understand our General’s great vision for the world. But I-” He was cut off by a beeping noise from somewhere around his waist. “Hold on one second.” He pulled a bulky rectangle thing from his belt. “Doctor Midori here.”

Goku and his friends exchanged glances. Should they start the fight? He really wanted to punch that guy’s face off, but it didn’t feel right to do it when he was talking with someone else. Krillin was charging some energy behind his back while Yamcha was settling into his wolf fang stance. He himself was more than ready to start fighting, as soon as that guy got done talking.

“What?! What do you _mean_ he’s the one that destroyed the main base?” In an instant that friendly look in the guy’s eyes was gone, replaced by a glare. “Take the woman and the child then, I don’t care what condition they’re in!”

Goku’s heart lurched. They were going to take Chi-Chi away again! They were going to take his wife and his son away! For the first time he could recall Goku felt frozen.

“Goku, hey, it’s fine.” He half wanted to scream at Yamcha; how could it be fine? They were going to take his wife away, they _had_ taken his wife away before. “They’re with her dad, right? He won’t let anything happen to them.”

What? No she wasn’t. What was Yamcha saying? Puar was the one with Chi-Chi’s dad, it just looked like it because- Goku blinked and breathed. That’s right, as far as that green guy knew, Chi-Chi was near the mainland.

The guy tisked. “Did you really think we’d fall for such a trick? As if we’d allow a flight risk like her to run around without a way to track her down.”

Goku barely had time to understand what that guy was saying before Krillin blew up their car. “Goku, go! We’ll take care of things here!”

He wasted no time calling for the Nimbus before taking flight, meeting the cloud halfway to the sky. Goku zoomed back towards Kame House, his thoughts a mass of worry, fear and anger.

Chi-Chi and Gohan were in danger. They were in danger and he _left them_! How could he have left them? Yes they had a plan but he should have stayed with her regardless!

The trip to the island felt like it took forever, even with the Nimbus going at top speed. In retrospect, he probably shouldn’t have even let that guy talk for as long as he did. If Goku had started fighting as soon as they touched down, they could have been on their way back by now. Then again, they could also still be fighting, not knowing that Chi-Chi, Gohan, Bulma and master Roshi were in danger.

Goku cursed as soon as his master’s house was in sight. Two large machines were parked at opposite ends of the island. The name escaped him at the moment, but they looked a lot like what Bulma used when they were hunting for Dragon Balls the second time. No wonder he hadn’t thought there were more than the people in the ship; he’d assumed that the underwater ki was the ki of some curious mermaids.

As he got closer he saw something that made his blood boil and his heart freeze. Chi-Chi was being dragged out of the house, covered in some purple gunk and screaming as someone else went the other way carrying his son. He couldn’t see Bulma or master Roshi but he could sense them and a couple of others inside the house.

More importantly, the person carrying Gohan was almost at one of the underwater machines and Chi-Chi was being dragged to the other. If he saved Gohan Chi-Chi might be shoved into the underwater car, if he saved Chi-Chi Gohan would without a doubt be taken away.

His thoughts flashed back to the night before, when he’d been thinking of some similar things happening. Trying a new technique in such a desperate situation wasn’t ideal, but he’s figured out trickier things under worse circumstances before.

Leaping off the Nimbus and aiming between his wife and son, Goku gathered his ki in the way Tien had before and focused.

Four Gokus landed and stumbled on the sand. One managed to roll with his momentum and the action caused another one to tumble over. They all felt the coarse grains against their skin and in their shirt despite the fact that only one had gotten sand there. A third shut his eyes to center himself and the other three suddenly felt like they could see despite knowing their eyes were shut.

It’d only been a second or so but Goku already felt sick, dizzy and so done with this technique. Was this how Tien felt when he did it? Why would anyone want to do a technique like this?

Chi-Chi screamed his name and he heard it four times at once. Gohan was screaming too. That’s right, he needed to save his family. Half of him needed to go to Chi-Chi and the other have had to go save Gohan.

At first they all started to move towards his wife, before he realized he had to consciously choose which self had to go where. Then the two closest to Gohan continued on to save his wife while the other two lunged towards the man taking his son away.

He had a bad feeling that this wasn’t going to be easy. Even if his opponents weren’t even a quarter of his normal fighting strength, every move he made he had to focus on moving just one Goku in that way or else they would all try doing it. However he also couldn’t focus on one of them at a time, he didn’t have time for that. Why the heck did Tien even think this was a good idea when they last fought?

Strange confusing techniques aside, he prepared all four of himselves for a fight. Even split into four, he was not going to let his family down!


	12. 12: Recovery

Chi-Chi gently carded her fingers through her husband’s hair, grimacing at his flinch when a particularly loud bang was heard from downstairs. All things considered, a migraine and some property damage wasn’t too bad considering her former kidnappers had been throwing acid around. Well, she had some small burns, but it certainly wasn’t the worst she’d ever had. Quite a few of the others did too, but Krillin had gotten some of those magic beans that had healed Goku back when he’d fought Piccolo.

Apparently though they did little for migraines, at least not when it was caused by Goku remembering being in four places at once. It did mean he was otherwise completely healthy. Still, she disliked that he couldn’t move or even focus on anything. All he seemed capable of doing at the moment was lying face down in her lap.

She gently rubbed at the outside of his ear, something she’d started doing when she was about to speak, so that he could prepare himself for the sound. “Should I ask them to take a break for a bit?”

Goku whined and grabbed at her dress, holding on so tight his knuckles turned white. That was probably a no then. She rubbed in a circle at the base of his skull, trying to sooth the headache away. It didn’t work, but his grip relaxed a bit on her dress.

Gohan was napping and cuddled up cutely at Goku’s side, his other arm was wrapped protectively around him. Chi-Chi couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

She honestly hadn’t thought anything could scare her more than the sight of Goku laying on the ground with a hole in his chest, but seeing Gohan being taken from her and being unable to do anything about it was absolutely worse. Granted, seeing a shaky, twitchy Goku hand her their son before collapsing and remerging with three other Gokus wasn’t that far down the list either.

A part of her was glad he’d managed to hold out until the enemies were defeated. The rest of her was just cursing at herself for making him effectively take on five opponents at once with no help other than himself. She hadn’t managed to get out of that purple goop until the fight was over.

“Dad went to our house,” she muttered softly, because she was pretty sure he was either too unconscious or in too much pain to know where her father had gone after he came back to check on her. “He’s going to take care of some things, and maybe clean it up a little? I didn’t quite understand that part.” Goku might not be the neatest person, but he did know how to keep a house clean.

Goku grunted, “didn’t like being home, ’s kind of messy now.”

“Mn? Why not?”

His grip tightened on her again, “you weren’t there.” There was some pain edging into his voice now, though whether it was emotional or from his headache, she couldn’t tell.

They fell into silence once again, well relative silence considering the noise from downstairs. Sometimes, when there was a lot of noise, she’d try to cover his ears. Chi-Chi wasn’t sure if it worked or not, but from the way he gently rubbed at her back she knew he appreciated it anyway.

Their little bubble of silence was broken when the sound of someone walking up the stairs reached her ears. Chi-Chi was surprised to see another one of Goku’s friends, the large one with three eyes, enter. He gave her a small smile which she returned.

“Hey, Chi-Chi, right? I’m Tien.”

“Tien, why would you come up with that technique?” Goku whined, though he didn’t move at all from his spot on the floor and her lap.

The older man huffed out a laugh. “It’s a great move, you just did it wrong.” Goku grumbled unintelligibly into her lap in response. “I’m impressed you managed to do it as well as you did though.”

“Has this happened to you?” She gestured to her prone husband.

“At the start yeah. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine in a couple hours.”

Chi-Chi let out a sigh of relief. Master Roshi had figured that, but it was good to hear from someone with experience in the matter.

Tien stayed and talked for a little bit, mostly about the multi-form technique and a bit about Gohan; was it really so strange that Goku was a father now? Soon enough he left to go and assist in the repairs. He also must have said something to the others because the noise level dropped significantly after he went down.

The three of them stayed in the dark room, the only times Chi-Chi left was to change Gohan’s diaper, to get him his bottles or for herself to go to the bathroom. Goku clearly didn’t like it much, if the way he clung tightly to her every time she returned was any indication.

Eventually Goku managed to migrate into a sitting position, though he kept his face pressed against her, now it was buried in the crook of her neck rather than on her lap. She leaned her cheek against his head.

“I can’t wait to go home.”

“Mm. Can’t wait for you to be home.”

Chi-Chi closed her eyes and relaxed against her husband. Their son was curled up across both their laps. Despite what she’d said even if they weren’t at their house yet, she’d never felt more at home than she did now; with her and her son completely safe and Goku by her side.

Neither noticed when they lapsed into sleep, both feeling more relaxed than they ever had in recent memory and content that their little family was now safe from harm.


End file.
